A Magical World
by planetbean
Summary: Author Miranda Flairgold created an epic masterpiece in 'A Second Chance at Life' and 'Changes in a Time of War' unfortunately she never finished her third book of the trilogy. it has been eleven years since her last update of the third book 'A Magical World' and I have read her books a great many times. I only hope I can do her justice.
1. Chapter One

**Firstly I would just like to thank Miranda Flairgold for her amazing work as an author on 'A Second Chance At Life' and 'Changes In A Time Of War'**** I think it having been eleven years now, that it's safe to say she won't be completing 'A Magical World' it is really rather sad and disappointing that she never completed it and nobody knows why. whether she has passed on or decided to move on from writing nobody knows but regardless, Miranda, we thank you.**

**I cannot hope to be any better of a writer than she was but I do hope to be adequate enough to supply satisfaction to all the fans who crave a conclusion to this story. I have read the first two publishings of Miranda's more than a couple times and I think I have a pretty good idea of where she was headed with it. As Miranda always said please review and feel free to give criticism because it helps me to write better and fix errors.**

**Disclaimer; I own nothing you recognize and everything you don't**

**Disclaimer II; I will be keeping true to Miranda's policy of no long term pairings for any characters**

**Disclaimer III; The first two chapters of this book are already written by the original author (Miranda Flairgold) and will be copied and pasted as the first two chapters of this book, as this is the continuation and completion of that book.**

**Disclaimer IV; This fan-fic is based off of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series but if you've come from reading Miranda's other two books then you already know this.**

**Chapter One**

from the last chapter of Changes in a Time of War

All over the world sirens went off.

Claire's supervisor, an auror from South Africa, came running into the room. The sensor was going berserk, flashing bright enough to blind. Claire was reading off the coordinates into a recording unit.

Then the whole sensor network came alive. Warning sirens fired off and the entire bank of sensors burst into light.

Next the computers set off their sirens, flashing red lights indicating activity at six known portals. The magical detectors followed instantly with identical warnings. Then the computers abruptly went silent. The magical detectors did not, their sirens wailing through the monitoring station. The supervisor turned down the volume and checked the computers, their electronic motion detectors must have been fried.

Claire had already hit the attack signal, sending out an instant communication to every magical settlement on the planet, and every set of armed fighters they had. Next she hit a series of controls, first on a muggle keyboard and then on a magical one, sending the locations of the six activating portals out to everyone.

Claire's supervisor took over the second chair and began using the sensor array to triangulate as closely as possible where the demonic magic was coming from. Seconds later eight more technicians joined them at the other work stations around the room. They already had a plan in place which split the world into sectors, and each of them went to work putting in the commands to find where the magic was coming from in their sector.

Exactly six minutes later every armed services unit received the full set of coordinates, as accurate as possible, of every piece of demonic magic the sensors could pick up. Claire remembered at the last minute to remove Sharahak from the group, while her supervisor removed the laboratories where portals were being studied, those were already being guarded. A total of forty-seven locations remained.

"It's started." Claire whispered.

"Send everything to Stocklir's command post and to Verens evacuation center." Her supervisor snapped. Stocklir would have updates on who was available to fight where and her team would send deployment orders. Veren, a veela, was in charge of managing evacuations, local teams would be reporting in to her and she would be coordinating supplies and travel routes.

At Akren Rahkesh dressed quickly and methodically. He, like everyone else, had his clothing and weapons stored in the middle of his room, ready to be put on. The students had been divided into three rotating shifts, which would, theoretically, trade off fighting duties every seven hours. This way they would have fourteen hours between fights, if everything worked right.

Rahkesh's weapon set, like that of everyone else, was highly personalized. His staff, two swords, four knives, tasers, potions, a prototype of a muggle handgun that some creative witch had come up with that might work against demons, his wand, and armored clothing. Other students would be carrying whatever they were best with.

Rahkesh had two possible roles, both of them either solitary or working with a small team. One of them was attacking as a thunderbird or as a basilisk. The other was to work with a group to get to the portal and destroy it, or, alternatively, the demons working it. They would have to evaluate the situation as they arrived. Fortunately Rahkesh was completely healed, had enjoyed two days of rest, and was ready for a fight, in any form.

Rahkesh was with all of his friends and a collection of students from other years. They were assembled in front of the main entrance four minutes after the alarms went off. Professors Darkwind and Masamba were already there.

"Is everyone ready?" Masamba asked gently, as if they were not about to go to war. "Very well then." The tiger fae gave everyone a mental image of their destination, a lonely line of hills close to a hundred kilometers northeast of Edmonton, Canada. Darkwind sent portkeys flying to everyone. The students clipped the bands into place around their left wrists. They were word or thought activated. When he was sure everyone had what they needed Darkwind nodded to Masamba. Masamba turned back to the students. "We will assemble on site under the cover of the trees. Two auror teams, a werewolf pack, a fairy clan, a wolf fae pack, and the local centaurs are joining us. On three, one, two, three."

XXX

From under the thick branches of a dark green shrub Rahkesh scanned the grassy horizon. They had not identified a portal to the demon realm in this location. It was an unknown. Fortunately the coordinates generated by the network had been fairly precise. But he could not see anything at all suspicious. Not even a glow. This meant little because many previous portals had been underground in caves, but there was no sign of those either. The fae were searching at the moment.

He spelled his shoulder-length black hair back for the third time, and wondered if maybe the demon magic in the area might be interfering. There was demon magic around, hanging heavy over the land like a suffocating blanket. Daray, having a massive black alpha demon as his animagus form (or something like that), had started growling immediately upon arrival. The youngest son of the Ateres vampire clan was lying on his belly beside Rahkesh, peering through a pair of very special binoculars that one of his mercenary clan had created. Rahkesh noted that Daray's tanned skin was remaining vampire-smooth but his ears were looking like there were scales just under the skin, and his dark hair was taking on an almost glassy shine like that his black scales had in demon form.

As an alpha demon Daray reacted aggressively to unknown alpha demon magic. At home the alphas fought for status constantly. The demon whose body Daray had taken (accidentally) for his own animagus had been completely annihilated, but some small remnant of its instincts remained in its magical blood. Daray, being a very powerful young vampire, was always aggressive anyway. But Rahkesh knew his friend very well and the very tiny shifting motions of Daray's shoulders told him that the vampire really wanted to attack, fight and kill something.

They really ought to have Daray searching for hidden caves with portals. He was more likely to sense them. But Daray claimed the demon magic was thickest in the middle of the field just at the horizon. They had already searched there and no magical scan had returned any evidence of a cave below. And so they were watching the field and wondering what they had missed and how they could improve.

Matolo, a werewolf built not terribly unlike an ox, except just a bit better looking, crawled up beside them behind a high tuft of brown grass. He was the beta werewolf for one of Akren's packs. His alpha, Xayi, was off with the other half of the pack. Running down the line of shrubs behind Matolo was the half of the pack he was leading. The werewolf's shaggy brown hair flopped down over his forehead and hung around his head in a manner much like the slightly droopy grass. Bright hazel eyes flashed over to Rahkesh and Daray "anything?"

"Nothing." Daray sighed softly, his sparkling eyes were taking on a tiny bit of glow, like he was trying to keep them from changing into the red and yellow they tended to be in demon form.

"This does not make any sense." Rahkesh commented, "we know that all of the demon's plans were built around attacking population centers first. And here we are in way-the-hell-middle-of-nowhere-Canada. How do they plan to reach any population center without being attacked?"

"Could be a diversion." Matolo offered.

"No, not here." Daray said, "they planned for a quick fast strike at our population centers. Hit hard, fight it out where they must and take the losses that come with that. Kill as many as possible, take no prisoners but children. Then track down and capture the scattered groups of refugees and smaller villages."

"Exactly, they were going to just kill in the first attack. This is the first attack because diversion was never part of it. They know we know they're coming and so they expect a rough go of it. To send troops as a diversion weakens the initial attack. They're limited, they can only send so many at a time. They need everyone to go for the first assault." Rahkesh had thought this through many times in the past half hour.

"They could be gathering here before leaving, but then we'd track them and be better prepared. So that doesn't make sense. Their only option, really, is to send in their best to hold the portals in the cities until more can come through." Daray hadn't been convinced of this himself, but Rahkesh was sure that the demons were not coming in distant locations just to gather for an attack.

"I suppose they could come in remote places and bring everything they've got. And then get down to the fighting. Sure, we'll know where they are and what they've got, but remember they outnumber us at least five hundred to one and they've got legions of arch demons lined up. Maybe they're doing that," Rahkesh admitted, "but none of the plans we got from any of their minds showed that scenario."

"Those demons were sent here knowing they had little chance of living long and a high chance of being captured." Daray reminded him, "could be they were deliberately mis-informed."

"All of them?" Matolo asked a little dubiously.

"Silas's captives all confirmed everything we got from Sharahak, the lead demon sorcerer from Mexico, and the soul Sierra Ateres stole from their scouting team in London." Daray explained. "So unless all of them were kept in isolation for a very long time, the plan is as we know it."

"And, therefore, there being demon magic here still makes no sense." Rahkesh stated.

XXX

He wasn't the only one who thought the current situation didn't make sense. Ms. Stocklir – now Minister Stocklir of Switzerland – was asking similar questions of her own people. And in her case someone needed to find an answer yesterday.

The whole situation was beyond confusing. They had identified six portals, only two within actual cities, the ones in Beijing and Houston. All of the six known portals had been activated, and so too had forty-one other locations. And of these only two were anywhere near any sort of population center, Leningrad and Budapest. Prepared for an invasion of the cities with the largest magical populations Stocklir's forces were in the wrong places.

Magic fixed the location problems quickly enough and everyone was relocated in less than twenty minutes. This still didn't explain why the demons weren't following their own plan. Stocklir had split her tactics people into a dozen teams and sent them off to brainstorm in groups. The stocky old grandmother had shocked her team with her language many times already that day and there would be more to come.

At the suggestion of the alpha of the werewolves of Sydney Australia she had also placed small, mobile teams of extremely skilled fighters at every location with a significant magical population. Just in case this was a diversion. Those few were mostly individual fighters who were expertly trained and who worked best alone due to unique abilities. They could keep an eye on where the demons should be, while the larger forces waited at where the scanner network said the demons were. Or where they going to be, since they had yet to materialize.

"Adrian Carvol in Katmandu, Nepal." Josephine warned her boss just before one of the ten the hippocampus hair screens across the left wall lit up.

"Adrian?" Stocklir asked. Their sensor network had spotted demonic magic flaring in a fairly remote completely unpopulated sub alpine valley. As with all of the other locations, it made no sense.

"Got something." Adrian reported. He was a tall middle aged man with dark brown hair going silver at the temples and sharp blue eyes that missed nothing. Because this location had been noted first Stocklir had sent in a team of Akren-trained professionals. Adrian Carvol and his crew specialized in tracking international fugitives, of any species. Adrian himself was, apart from his impressive magical credentials, an expert tracker and wilderness survival expert and avid mountain climber who had spent years roaming around Nepal as a young man. "Unless the demons plan on impersonating wildflowers they haven't arrived yet."

"But?"

"Get a look at this." The visual spun for a moment, everyone in the main control room leaned in close, then drew back as bright light flashed across the screen. The visual stabilized, showing an arched golden gateway, with a flaming tunnel inside. Trailing bits of fire slipped out, scorching a pale cliff face. The gold was glowing almost red from the heat.

One of Adrian's team approached the gateway, stopping about fifty meters away. The golden arch loomed over her.

"Five meters high." Adrian explained, "there's no heat coming out, though the flames sure are. I've got the rest of the team scattered around and hidden. Maze and I are getting all the magical readings the research team wanted."

"Keep away from the gate." Stocklir warned unnecessarily, "Put out a wave net around your location." A wave net was a fairly complex, if easily constructed, enchantment that rippled like a wave when activated. It was used primarily for simply knocking over anything that tried to walk on it.

"Already done boss. And an anti-summoning ward." Adrian reported. The anti-summoning ward would stop anyone from being sucked into the gateway. His team wore enchanted tattoos that had been keyed into the ward.

The door in the back of Stocklir's command center opened and a tall, pale, creamy sand and grey demon walked in, keeping his wings folded over his back to avoid harming anyone. "Sharahak have you seen anything like this?" The former vampire, now and permanently in a demon body, had lived in the demon realm for about a thousand years.

Sharahak rocked back onto his hind legs to stand upright from his more natural all-fours position, easily dwarfing the rest of the room. He leaned forward and gently tapped the screen with a claw to zoom in on the top of the arched gate.

"We've got some distant sounds coming out of the gate." Adrian warned, "sounds like a chant, but in growls."

"Sound-based transport." Sharahak identified it, "only used by the demon army. The sound waves cause an effect not unlike the rippling around oars on a boat. I don't know how it really works. It's one way, only works coming into this world."

"Anything else?" Stocklir asked.

"Yes, this particular portal must have been placed at this location a very long time ago, thousands of years ago. Maybe back during the battle for Atlantis. Like most of the portals we've found it isn't new. But unlike the rest it only works one way."

"Can we close it?"

"I doubt it, I certainly don't know how and unlike all the others, this one can't be activated with human sacrifices from this world." Sharahak said. "Though since it is sound based…perhaps a consultation with the Chachapoyaro. They know a bit about sound-based magics."

"General Mahlkinalgiviris is already on his way over." Stocklir said. "By the way, how is that name shortened?" The Chachapoyaro had long and complex names that they almost always shortened to easy nicknames.

"Mahl usually." Sharahak said absently. "Looking at this portal I don't think there is any way to activate it from this world. The usual human sacrifices and death magic method probably won't work at all."

"We could give it a try." Master Necromancer Nicholas Walcressen of the White Order offered. A little too eagerly. As the head of the White Order he and his necromancers dealt with magic produced from living sacrifices. The Black Order utilized only their own personal magic. Walcressen, being a White Necromancer, had no problem at all with killing people to gather the magic of their deaths, or torturing them for the magic that provided. Stocklir didn't much like the Necromancers of the White Order, few did, they didn't even like each other, but at the moment all of Earth was allied against the demons.

"No thank you Nicholas." Stocklir declined gently. She had already been talked into allowing the White Order to collect some muggle and a few magical criminals to utilize as sacrifices. As a strong advocate for the basic rights of every sentient species it had left her feeling ill, but it was necessary. All chosen had been criminals, the muggles sentenced to death and the magical people either the same or near it. They would have no place in their new world for them anyway, and if the demons got them it would just help them grow stronger. Fortunately most of the sacrifices the White Order wanted were being supplied by the magical vampires, who were finishing up exterminating all of their non-magical fanged brethren anyway.

"I don't think that will be necessary here. Actually it would be useless. There's no way to connect magically from this world to that portal." Sharahak said. Despite being a vampire and living in the demon realm he didn't like Walcressen either.

"However the portal in Hungary can be operated from this realm." Necromancer Norovosi Ateres of the White Order said from the doorway. They had a dozen separate rooms set up to keep track of everything. Norovosi and his crew were working part of Europe. Stocklir was running the command center, and therefore trying to organize everything based on the reports from each group.

"Then close it down." Stocklir ordered, putting the thought of the dozen or so people who were going to die horribly to make that happen out of her mind. That portal was one of the ones near a very large magical community. Walcressen's twisted smile made a few people wince as he followed the vampire out of the room.

"I suppose it is a good thing we have so many muggle vampires that need to be gotten rid of." Julius Nandan commented as the door shut. The tall thin vampire with scraggly blond hair flying everywhere was the heir of the Master of Paris, and well experienced at coordinating military units from several recent wars with other vampires intent on taking France from its current vampiric rulers.

"We've got something happening in western Canada." Armel Vbramski called from his own set of hippocampus screens. He flicked a few controls and another of the larger panels burst into light. It was early evening there and Armel rotated the view as much as he could to avoid the sun. This was not much, given that the other screen was set up a fair way back from the site and was two dimensional, they were able to see the grassy field, but the team appeared well hidden.

"Master Masamba?" Stocklir asked. The tiger fae with his unusual head covered in silvery striped fur and shining cat eyes appeared.

"We have not been able to locate the portal but the magic here is thick enough to choke on. We've had several minor earthquakes just now and the ground is beginning to heat."

"Another cave?"

"If so we haven't found any evidence of one."

Stocklir thought this over. The team Masamba was running had about a dozen Akren students on it, including both Daray Ateres the demon animagus, and Rahkesh Asmodaeus their thunderbird and basilisk. They were backed by one of the world's strongest werewolf packs, wolf fae, eagle fae, sixty vampires, twenty Akren alumni, and an auror team. She had hoped to send them another auror team, but they had been needed in New Mexico. Whatever was happening, the team in place was probably capable of doing a good bit of damage.

"Do you need more help?"

"A goblin or two would be nice, but no, I think our force is adequate." Masamba said. "I'm calling in to tell you that the location here that has the strongest demon magic is not the area of ground that is heating up. Wherever they're doing whatever they're doing, the center of the wards where the most magic is coming from is located half a kilometer west of it. I don't know if it's intentional but if it is it's a damn clever tactic. We've been keeping and eye on the area with the most magic, if the wolf fae hadn't been roaming around and happening to feel the warming ground and gotten suspicious we wouldn't have noticed."

"I'll pass the note along." Stocklir said, nodding to a few of her team to start sending out alerts to the others. "We have yet to see a demon even though we have at least one open portal."

"They'll be here." Masamba said.

XX

Waiting was boring. Waiting was all he'd done for two months. Waiting and walking a three-quarter kilometer loop around a large portal to the demon realm. Red hated waiting. He'd walked that loop every day, all day, for two months. He'd stopped counting loops when he passed a thousand, it was just too depressing. Like every vampire he could potentially exist forever, theoretically. In spite of this the past two months had been dull enough to make even a vampire regret being semi-immortal; what if he was stuck here doing this forever? That was the depression and boredom talking. Red knew perfectly well that he was to be transferred back to one of his Master's fortresses at the three month mark. To prevent insanity.

On the other hand he had had the opportunity to read an awful lot of books when he wasn't on duty. He was training to a sharper fighting edge than he'd ever been, he'd started learning a new type of magic just to find something to do, and he'd taught himself to make stone furniture. Because he was bored.

It's wasn't a very big island, to sail around the whole pile of rocks was barely three kilometers. And who in their right mind would want to do that when the sea was cold enough to make the dead cry and the waves as tall as an elephant and the wind wild enough to make even vampire start hallucinating after a month stuck in it? Of Red's team of twenty half a dozen had gotten bored enough to actually take up sailing. Until a great white shark made its presence known by overturning one of the sailboats Red's second in command had built. That was the only exciting thing that had happened and Red was sick and tired of having nothing productive to do. There weren't even any trees on the island. The entire thing was composed of moss, lichens, a few hardy grasses and low shrubs and sharp rocks jutting out everywhere just waiting to break an unwary ankle. There had been two of those, incidents which Red had not reported to his Master out of embarrassment. Vampires weren't supposed to break ankles by stumbling, but even the best trained senses could get hypnotized walking the same damn trail a few thousand times.

Any moment now this portal was going to activate, and then he'd have something to do. Red was looking forward to the demon's invasion of Earth. He and his companions agreed that it was going to be spectacular. They weren't terribly worried for their own safety even though they knew that some of them were probably going to die. They had a better chance at survival than most and were perfectly capable of looking after themselves. And they had reason to be excited; this portal was one likely to be transporting arch demons. Arch demons were giant demons who the other demons thought to be almost indestructible. When Tristan Namach had requested that containing and killing anything that came through this portal as one of his tasks everyone else had been perfectly happy to let him have it. Red and his companions were looking forward to this invasion because they couldn't wait to help their Master crush the demon's best weapon.

They all agreed that no army of arch demons was going to ever be any serious threat to their Master, and they were looking forward to proving their own worth by jointly killing as many arch demons as possible. Red personally wanted to kill an arch demon on his own, which he knew was overly ambitious, but what an alluring challenge. Killing an arch demon on his own while leading his team into battle was something that he'd be forever able to hold over his creator, the fact that his creator thought him dead didn't matter. Red's creator was a singularly dull vampire who'd cut off all ties with Red a decade after creating him because Red had wanted to become a doctor, a potions master, and an assassin, in that order, instead of being a mercenary. Red had gone his own way and had been recruiting by none other than Tristan Namach at the young age of two hundred. Red had cheerfully given Tristan his soul and lived only to serve him, a decision he'd never regretted until now. Two damn months and he hadn't even seen a damn bird on this nasty little island. There weren't even any bugs! After the shark had left there hadn't been any living things in the sea, not even seaweed…though that should probably tell him something about the demon magic here. Red was losing his mind. If the demons didn't attack soon he was going to start talking to the grass. The grass, of course, was all the same color, the same color as the lichens, the moss, and the shrubs. Not a hint of variation. What kind of island didn't have flowers? Two months, one more to go. Why couldn't it snow or something? Or even rain. Heck rain would be down right fascinating here.

There were other portals his Master was watching. Tristan had awakened his entire army months earlier to get them training. Most of the time the vampires under his command existed without bodies; they left their bodies at one of his fortresses and did their Master's bidding as wraiths. Supposedly Tristan had full control of his servants in either wraith or in their natural form and he could utilize their bodies much like robots while their mind and souls were elsewhere. No one had ever noticed this happen, but everyone was sure it did. They didn't care. Giving up all freedom was part of joining Tristan's secretive forces. But this was the first time they had all been in a natural vampire form at once. And all of them were preparing for battle. At any given time a full third of them were usually working on training new skills. Tristan even sent his servants to muggle universities so that he would have experts in everything nonmagical and magical. He rotated his servants between assignments, but usually allowed them to pursue their own interests, so long as they left no record of their existence anywhere. He kept track of every single one of them, the magic that bound them to him allowing him to read their minds at will. Red was certain his Master knew perfectly well just how dull this dot at the end of the earth was.

Red shook his blond hair out of his blue eyes and glared at the worn trail on the dusty gray earth and rock. Perhaps this was some sort of test. Though he led a team of twenty Red was a fairly low ranked vampire, a well educated one to be sure, but nothing terribly special. Perhaps if he'd been a little more senior he would have been assigned to one of the other portals or to one of the fortresses. The vampires assigned to the two most dangerous portals, the one not twenty miles outside of Beijing, and the portal in Houston, both of which were capable of bringing through arch demons, were vampires nearly two thousand years old who had served Tristan for virtually their entire existence. They were each commanding one hundred vampires while the majority of the army was training at their Master's fortresses.

This portal was supposed to be capable of bringing in arch demons. But Sharahak didn't think it was very strong, so maybe only a few would make it through. Red was just the watchman, there was a whole regiment waiting for his signal that the portal had been activated. Perhaps this was just a test of endurance, to see how long they could stay focused and sane in such a location. As much as Red trusted his Master completely and was delighted to serve him in anything, he wondered if maybe Tristan had overestimated a vampire's capacity to endure. Two of his team were starting to make Red worry for their mental stability. Maybe he'd send them out sailing again. Give them something even nastier to focus on.

The dull flat gray sky opened up a little and a tiny bit of sunlight slipped through. Red stopped to stare at it. Withstanding sunlight was something he had learned very young. He'd been turned into a vampire at thirty and by forty five had been capable of spending several days at a time in full sunlight. He was now just past his third century and a little sun didn't bother him at all. It was almost welcome, though after so long without it it made his eyes ache for a moment. The sky had been a flat boring gray for a month and half without change. They hadn't even been able to see the full moon. It occurred to him that he must be getting truly desperate when a ray of sunlight made him happy because it was something different.

The sun vanished again and Red turned for the base camp. Maybe Sandy had gotten the television working. They had brought all sorts of electronic equipment, plus a TV for entertainment, but everything had died more or less upon arrival. It must be the demon's magic doing it. All the more reason to want them dead. The last time Red had gone two months without watching a good rugby match was when he'd been an infant.

The ground lurched sideways and Red stumbled. Smoke blasted out of the center of the island followed by red flames and intense heat. Red apparated to the base camp instantly, hearing magical sirens screeching their alarm signal. Finally. He'd almost been ready to start sending invitations.

XX

Down in the tall grass Rahkesh felt the ground twitch.

One of the local werewolves growled softly. "I can smell them now". Daray sniffed and nodded sharply, his eyes flashing a bit red around the irises. Rahkesh glanced towards where they now thought the demons would attack from. There would probably be alpha demons leading them. He leaned over and tapped Daray on the shoulder.

"If you need to transform let me know, I'll block everyone's line of sight."

"Thanks. I think I can handle it once the fight starts. Strangely it's much easier then…or maybe not, the focus on attacking makes the demons side just slide away."

"Well there isn't much of it left, just some tattered bits of instinct." Rahkesh said. "Does Sharahak have the same problem?"

"No. He just got the demon's whole body. I got an animagus and some extra instincts. I think I got the better deal." Daray grinned slyly. "The ladies who aren't reptiles themselves still find me attractive."

Rahkesh laughed, trust a vampire to think about the important things in life first. "Demons are rather like Earth reptiles aren't they?"

"Unlike some reptiles, snakey, demons have limbs."

The ground trembled again. The groaning and snapping of rock below them sounded ominous and Rahkesh had to resist the urge to bolt before something caved in. Another lurch, this time it actually moved them sideways.

"I think we should back off a bit. It feels like a fairly big piece of the ground is going to go." Matolo said. The werewolf on their other side was already signaling the rest of his pack to back off a ways. Cautiously the group began to move away from the area of ground that was now so hot little tendrils of steam were rising off of it.

They had only gone a few paces when Daray spun, knife and wand springing into his hands and a hair-raising growl rising up from his chest.

The earth split open. Flames engulfed an area of land the size of a quidditch pitch and a gaping wound opened up splitting the field in half. The blast of heat and flames sent everyone diving for cover.

Spiraling flames leaped from the torn earth and from within each a demon dropped out, wings outstretched, diving for the people on the ground. At the edges of the ripped bedrock more demons appeared, these ones without wings, clawing their way out of the portal, massive scimitar-like blades in hand.

The werewolves bunched up into their teams of six and began firing off spells, knocking demons back down into the portal. Working with one such group Rahkesh and Daray went after the demons plummeting out of the air, hurling spells to snap their wings.

Brilliant gold streams of light flew in low over the grass, curling up under the demons now running out of the portal. Blasts of gold sparks erupted where the spells hit and demons went down screaming, blood pouring from their ruined guts. Rahkesh side stepped around one of the small golden spells and saw it looked just like an eagle. They must be one of the eagle fae's tricks.

A massive winged gray demon hit the ground beside him. Rahkesh stepped forward and slammed a thin-bladed knife straight into its left eyeball. He followed it up with a disintegration curse to the throat. The demon's fire and venom washed harmlessly off his armored clothing. Rahkesh side stepped as the demon fell forward, transfigured his knife into an axe, and spun, brining the weapon down across the back of the demon's neck.

The dried out field was burning out of control. The edge of the fire was moving fast towards the distant hills. Around them thick choking smoke and waist-high flames went whipping across the earth. Rahkesh cast a version of the bubble-head charm, giving himself an invisible bubble around his head to keep the smoke out of his eyes.

Beside him Matolo broke into a run and tackled a charging demon. Flipping the massive animal Matolo snapped a long string around its neck. He leaped back and snapped his fingers. The demon's head was ripped off its body as the threadmagic ignited. Rahkesh dodge the flying head and hurled a skinning spell at another demon going for Matolo's back. As it turned and breathed fire to burn the spell out of the air Daray hit it from the opposite side. Knocking the demon flat he shot it through the ear with one of the newly built enchanted bullets.

As the demon went limp purple fire streaked down from above and Rahkesh cast a shield around his group. The demons attacking now were using magic. From above a line of demons dropped out of the air. Rahkesh handed off the shield spell to Matolo. Bringing his wand up he sent off a dozen melting spells, deliberately making them loose and brightly colored. The flaring magic and light blocked out the demon's vision even though the spells bounced harmlessly off their thick scales.

Under the cover of the flashing spells the group split into twos and dove out of the way. The demons dropped down into empty air and right into the space Rahkesh's group had previously occupied. Disoriented and temporarily blinded and demons paused as they found bare ground where their opponents had been. Just as they hit the ground the whole team began casting spells.

Banishing the blood and demon flesh that had splattered across his face Rahkesh turned and found the werewolves beside him, looking past him. Rahkesh spun on one foot to look back at where the portal was.

The ground was covered with demons, smaller than Daray or Sharahak, no wings, hundreds of them. They were clawing their way up out of the portal and charging into the fight screaming. A spinning cloud of flaming columns flashed and danced above the portal, spitting out winged demons to attack from above. Too many Rahkesh thought, there's too many. What kind of portal was this that could bring a thousand through at a time?

"Anyone good with a shield?" Rahkesh barked over the werewolves. A few hands went up. "Get in the center then. Four of you watch the sky, the other four go over us. Daray?"

"Behind you." Daray growled as the werewolves grouped up around them. "Ahmad's little knife-cloud trick?"

"Yep." Rahkesh said, settling into a bit of crouch so the werewolves could get over him. They were firing off curses at the demons nearest to them. Daray turned to face the opposite way and pulled out both his usual wand and the spare he carried. "Now."

The werewolves shield went up and Daray and Rahkesh began to spin, back to back, wands flinging out a continuous stream of knives. Traveling so fast they blurred the knives formed a thick solid mass around the group and then exploded outwards.

"Split!" Rahkesh called, together their little group was too good a target, and he could see demon sorcerers fighting with the fae in the distance.

The wave of knives traveled too fast for the demons to avoid it, most of them didn't even see them coming. Rahkesh and Daray had conjured thousands of them in only a few seconds and by blasting them outwards at once had created a gap in the battle as the demons either died or had to pause to remove the blades.

Rahkesh hit the ground behind the flaming remains of a tall bush. A moment later Daray was beside him. A charging demon breathed fire at them and swung a saber-like blade. Rahkesh ducked and rolled, feeling a spiked tail slam into his side and a rib crack. He rolled and drove a knife up under the spines on the demon's neck while clamping a hand over its eyes and forcing a crushing curse through its head. Beside him Daray dropped another dead demon to the ground, licking his lips. Blood ran from a bite on the side of the demon's jaw while the gaping smoking hole through its spine sputtered and turned to ash.

"Their sorcerers are up to something." The vampire commented, pointing to the demons circling over head. "We probably shouldn't give them a chance to get it done, whatever it is." He raised an eyebrow at Rahkesh. "How well can you sense the team signal?" All of the Earthlings had a magical signal on them, much like the Akren one but different, which allowed them some chance of avoiding hurting each other in the crazed confusion of battle.

"Well enough. How are your flying skills?"

"On a broom? Adequate."

"All of our group can fly. Let's get them airborne. I'll break some room." Rahkesh hissed, firing a string of curses at the demons, who were charging in over the bodies of the dead.

"Done. Have a nice flight." Daray said and rolled away downhill. Rahkesh unwrapped Sygra from his neck and set her down.

Can I eat them?

Of course.

I will be most upset if you electrocute me.

I will not do so. Rahkesh assured her as he took a running start towards a large rock. Leaping off his right leg with a magical push he went high over the demon's heads.

The thunderbird exploded into existence across the sky with a wild crashing of thunder and blaze of sparkling lightning bursts. Rahkesh leaned back and beat his wings hard, the down draft aimed at the demons coming out of the portal. Below him demons went crashing over backwards, falling back into their realm. The Earth fighters used the distraction to regroup and remove any injured to a safer location

As always turning into a thunderbird sent a wave of raw adrenaline and ecstasy through him, as though the whole world was his and nothing could possibly harm him. It felt as though he had transcended to another state of being, perfection in magic and the wild fire of the storm dancing in his veins. It felt amazing, the air under his wings and the power around him made him feel as though he had every bit of magic in the world flowing through him. Rahkesh concentrated and pulled his thoughts back, as much as he'd like nothing more than to fly forever, lashing the heavens with his lighting, he did have things to do.

Gaining some height Rahkesh wheeled around and caught sight of the demon sorcerers. They were mostly alpha demons like Daray, adults, and spreading flashing bits of red magic everywhere off their wings and claws.

Coming down from above Rahkesh sensed the demonic magic, blocked out Daray as being on his side, and attacked. Shrieking lightning bolts snapped from the clouds surrounding him, lancing into the demon's magic and breaking it apart. The sparkling red mass snapped and vanished. Rahkesh spun on a wingtip and focused on the demons themselves.

The sorcerers responded with blinding purple fire as the air rumbled with thunder and lightning flashed again. The giant thunderbird was in its non-solid state and Rahkesh ignored the attacking demons, the winds wrapped around him buffeting them out of his way.

Across the sky Rahkesh's storm was growing; black clouds growing and blocking out the setting sun. Soon the billowing black clouds stretched to every horizon and the earth was darkened below. Through the darkness the thunderbird's form appeared against the clouds, lit by a dazzling array of lightning as he sent lightning bolts crashing into the demon sorcerers.

Beside Rahkesh a demon screamed as his lightning bolts tore its wings to shreds and sent it plummeting to earth. Below the auror team pounced and finished it off. Rahkesh sent lightning bolts rippling off after three demon sorcerers and got a satisfying screech as his aim proved true and their vulnerable eyes blew apart.

Demonic magic shot through his feathers close to his head and Rahkesh ducked. Some of them had found away to get to him even in his non-corporeal form. Swinging around with amazing agility for so large a bird Rahkesh turned the fury of his storm on the new set of attackers. Below him the portal continued to spew out demons on the land and the flaming tendrils creeping out of the portal released demons into the air.

Rahkesh let off a rippling blast of lightning all around him and dove. Lightning zapped down and wrapped around the flames that were releasing the winged demons. Catching the whole tendril Rahkesh spun above it, tying his lightning into a spiral. With a heavy beat of his wings the spiraling lightning bolts lashed inwards to form one single massive bolt blazing downwards through the portal.

The demons coming through that piece of flame exploded as they materialized. Rahkesh flew upwards again and turned to find another piece of the portal.

Yellow magic hit his side and Rahkesh had to roll over completely as pain shot through him. More yellow magic and Rahkesh followed it back to its origin. Blue sparks, red flashes and Rahkesh felt the flesh inside his left leg shred as though under a cheese grater. Screaming as much in pain as in rage Rahkesh sought out his attackers. Waves of demons flying in formation dropped out of the sky, their wings glowing and magic flashing off their claws. Rahkesh switched direction again and went straight for them.

The air began to vibrate with continuous thunder as Rahkesh sent his magic into the storm and then pulled the lightning out of it. The air sizzled and the stench of ozone grew around Rahkesh's body. Rahkesh folded in his wings and dove for the first rank of demon sorcerers attacking him. Waiting until he could see individuals Rahkesh slammed his wings down to rise over them and let loose.

Half the first wave of demons was knocked out of the air instantly by the thunderbird's lightning attack. Rahkesh flew low over them, turning to come back for a second strike. Focusing on their magic he pulled lightning out of the storm in a constant stream of electricity from every direction. Closing his wings he dropped down past the demons and now the lightning came from the storm above and the thunderbird below. Spread his wings Rahkesh risked becoming fully solid.

The lightning bolts began to fly back and forth form the thunderbird to the storm. Like ping pong balls the lightning bolts shot up and down, Rahkesh focusing them onto the tiny bits of magic that marked the demon sorcerers. Demons blew apart and soon blood and limbs were raining down onto Rahkesh's back. The blood caught fire and began to burn. The sorcerers were turning and diving at him now. Rahkesh rose with a few beats of his wings and went to meet them. The demons saw him coming and began a new spell, a green and orange one that danced through the air between them, avoiding the flying lightning.

Thunderbird and demons collided above the battle field with a shockwave that flattened everything on the ground. Trees were blown apart and the fighting armies below were knocked flat beneath roaring thunder and screaming lightning. The demons magic liquefied the earth and set it flaming. Between the blue flames eating the ground the demons and Earthlings got back on their feet and looked up.

Up above Rahkesh was fighting the green and orange magic biting into his flesh and burning his feathers. His own attacks were taking the sorcerers down under brilliant displays of lightning. From within the storm clouds behind the demons silver fire was forming. Seeing it Rahkesh began to wing back and forth in a swaying motion, lashing the air with lightning. The demon's magic hurt and wrapped around him almost tight enough to strangle, but he kept moving. Burning pain in his right leg near the knee and again at the thigh made him spin and dodge. The demons attacked again and this time Rahkesh arched his back and sent lightning rolling over himself as pain lanced up from the center of his back. Finding the cluster of sorcerers he focused in on them. The demons were forced to retreat, right into the silvery net.

Rahkesh ducked under the mass of writhing death magic and spun away from the demon's exploding burning remains. Behind him the fighters on their brooms were finishing off the demons who had survived the attack. But more were coming. Looking down Rahkesh saw that there were many more. Thousands more. And the portal continued to flame. He could do something about that.

Their forces on the ground were getting pushed back by the demons. The Earthlings might be superior fighters to these unwinged demons but sheer numbers were winning out. Rahkesh wheeled around and went for the portal itself. Flying in low he unleashed a storm of lightning bolts into the gaping flaming wound in the earth. Inside he attached the lightning bolts to the walls of the portal and began to wind them together.

More demons were flying out of the sky, hundreds more. Rahkesh ignored them. Above him the fighters spun on their brooms and went into another attack. While they kept the flying demons off him Rahkesh spun his lightning bolts together until a net of electrical energy covered the portal. Inside demons were trying to get out, and falling back into the demon realm as the net blasted them off of it. Rahkesh concentrated on the energy of the portal and began to pull at it. Bringing the demonic energy around his electrical net to it would be powered off of the demons own magic.

Daray appeared beside him on a broom, bits of demon flesh dripping off the magical sword in his left hand. He drove the sword through the wings of a demon attacking them, then countered its magical attacks. Rahkesh dodged the flying shrapnel and the demon's poisonous spells, then dropped back beside Daray as the demon plummeted to the ground, dead. These sorcerers were, for the most part, not so powerful as the one that had led the attack in Mexico. Rahkesh carefully sent Daray a thought of what he was trying to do. Ducking under his wings Daray dove for the portal, drawing a knife as he flew low over the snapping parking net. Rahkesh reached up into the thundering storm above him and began to spin lighting bolts into a spiral.

The demon sorcerers dodged out of the way as a rippling tornado of lightning descended from the sky. Rahkesh guided it right to the center of the portal. Down below, looking very small against the size of the towering flames, Daray was zipping back and forth, drawing demon magic into the net.

Done Rahkesh caught the thought from the vampire and finished the connection, bringing both the energy of the storm and the demonic magic into his net. At once it began to splinter and fracture. Pieces shifted and new smaller nets formed, growing outwards in every direction until the top thirty meters of so or the portal was filled with raw electrical and demonic energy.

Jumping through the portal in their realm the demons had no control over their movement and were sent smashing helplessly into the net. Unable to prepare or do anything to defend themselves they were torn apart by the electrical discharge that erupted everywhere they hit.

Now that no new demons were coming through Daray went to rejoin the fighters in the air, attacking the demon sorcerers, ripping the wings off of one and pulling the guts out of another. The aerial battle was filling the sky with a brilliant array of color, bright enough to fully illuminate the battle on the ground in spite of it being night time. Rahkesh turned his attention to the ground battle; his frenzied storm magic was not terribly safe or useful when trying to work with a large team riding brooms. He tended to cause all sorts of air movements without meaning too, making it almost impossible to fly well.

Leaving the sorcerers to the hundred or so Earthlings riding brooms or flying without them Rahkesh began picking out groups of demons on the ground and electrocuting them all. Below and to his left he noticed a large winged creature diving and snapping at the demons that were trying to run around the outside of the battle, to get around behind the Earthlings. Dropping down low Rahkesh winged in over Sygra's head and sent lightning in a wave across the ground into a block of demons. Sygra appeared beside him, batting a demon out of the way with her wings and snapping the head off a second. She didn't often get to fight in her wyvern form, and was enjoying herself immensely in spite of the bloody gashes down her sleek black and sliver hide.

With the eagle fae joining the aerial battle and Sygra backing up the aurors Rahkesh turned away and went back to hovering near the portal, killing any demon that got too close. From inside he could feel demonic magic ripping apart his electrical net. But he could also feel increased heat and see the portal walls dripping. Not long now. Even the strongest portal could only bring through so many before it was destroyed.

And now Rahkesh found himself stuck. He could let the net go and let the demons through, which would result in the portal being destroyed sooner. Or he could hold the net knowing that it would eventually be broken and the demons would continue the invasion. Searching around the battle Rahkesh found each of the Akren signals and went through them, seeking Masamba. Finding the tiger fae's mind Rahkesh presented the situation quickly in a burst of thought. Masamba considered the options for a moment, and then pointed out that if he could hold the net until most of the demons already in their world had been dealt with he could then let the demons in a few at a time, for an easier kill. Professor Ahmad, joining their telepathic discussion, pointed out that the demons were more likely to stop the attack and conserve whatever the portal had left for future use. This would mean that they would have to keep a permanent guard on the portal.

Better to burn it out now then let them keep it and however many it can send through as a distraction for us. Masamba agreed. Let it go.

Rahkesh dropped his net and winged higher, Sygra following him. They could at least go for the alpha demons as they dropped out of the flames and hit them before they could group for an attack.

XX

Sharahak ground his teeth and felt the sorcerer go limp in his jaws, its' spine severed. He dropped the body and stepped over it, wincing as the movement pulled at the deep wounds across his ripped wings and shoulders. Next to him two armored vampires burned another demon to a pile of ash. Sharahak glanced around, but found no immediate threat. Every demon in sight was dead or in the violent process of becoming so.

Fire and magic raced across the sky off to his left and Sharahak went in that direction at a run. The ground was shaking and he kept tripping up. Long cracks spread through the earth and the thick waves of smoke made it difficult to breathe. Cresting a low rise Sharahak paused and sat down, taking in the scene below him.

Black scorched earth, glowing embers and red melted earth stretched from horizon to horizon. The world was coated in smoke and awash in flames. Underfoot the ground was superheated and rock was melting in some places. The whole region probably looked like the apocalypse had come. The last two arch demons were fighting their way out of a massive pile of yellow/white tendrils…magical chains. A few meters away a massive Ice Dragon was drinking the blood of one of their companions. The ground had been burned down to bedrock, and that had melted. Arch demon remains were strewn everywhere, ripped to pieces.

Sharahak spotted a pile of solid rock and gingerly ventured through the wrecked corpses. Arch demons were one of the few types that he had not truly had an opportunity to look at up close, only from very far away. They were huge, larger than elephants, and really just looked like giant beta demons with a few additions; odd twisting wings, more horns, longer front limbs than hind and a tendency to walk on their back legs balanced by their enormous tails. Except not so elegant, more like the parts didn't quite all fit right, no grace to them, just dull flat scales and patchwork brown, gray, and red coloring. But they were big. Sharahak climbed up onto the rock pile to watch and found himself beside a severed head that had been sliced in half. The dead eye was as large as his head was.

The arch demons massive bodies were very close to those of a beta demon, but bulky without the sleek cat-like grace of the betas and alphas. The skin along their sides looked like maybe they had once been able to glide, but had evolved away from that ability. Their odd wings appeared almost deformed and Sharahak doubted they could fly for any lengths of time. Even when they tried to fly Tristan and his warriors had a very clear advantage in the air; the vampires could all fly without brooms and were so agile that the arch demons had failed to harm even one of them. And so the arch demons had learned quickly that a battle on the ground with magical shields above was probably their best method. Shields could be easily anchored to their wings without hindering spells cast from their claws and weapons.

Sharahak watched while the dragon in the distance shook the dying arch demon like a rag doll, its teeth caught in between the demon's vertebrae. The big white dragon twisted its neck around and ground its teeth in, sending more blood flowing from the demons' ruined throat. The ice dragon snorted fire and tilted its head to drink the blood. Tristan wasn't in any hurry to kill. The worst of the battle was long over and he had only two more arch demons left to deal with, and they had not yet escaped the magic he had them snared in.

Tristan's sleek, glossy, ice-white hide was covered in deep bloody slashes, scorch marks and magical blast wounds. Jagged weeping bite marks from the arch demons powerful jaws had gouged holes almost all the way through his right hind leg. Claw marks dragged all over his gleaming scales and his wings bore gaping wounds. The sharp edges of his scales were shattered, his tail spikes broken and fractured. Black soot and black burned and melted scales dripped down his left side from the middle of his back, across his spine, down across his shoulder and down his left front leg.

Tristan had taken the worst of the fighting for himself; there had been nearly a hundred arch demons and he had insisted on having two thirds of them. His warriors had killed the other third of the arch demons but Tristan had taken the rest on his own. Perhaps as a personal test, perhaps he'd just been in a mood for a fight. The arch demons had proven to be some very serious opponents both magically and physically, and Tristan, though clearly victorious, had taken a lot of gruesome injuries. As Sharahak watched the bloody ruin of his once-white hide was slowly healing, one by one the tears and gaps closing over into pink scars and then starting to fade, leaving dull white leathery skin coated in rippling white scars. The scales would grow back no doubt, but that would take a several hours.

The battle had utterly destroyed the land as far as the eye could see. Sharahak had flown above the fight during the worst of the battle and guessed the devastation as at least forty square kilometers, possibly more. The local magical beings were handling the muggles and illusions and clean up. Sharahak did not envy them that job. Apart from the ruined earth the magic had been so intense that it would not have surprised Sharahak if it had been visible from space. The sorcerers here had been no amateurs. Neither had the arch demons. They and Tristan had sent fire and magic high enough to impact the upper most layer of clouds. It had been the single most amazing fight Sharahak had ever witnessed, but he was glad it was over. His own injuries hurt terribly, though none were very serious, and he was exhausted.

Tristan lifted his head from the throat of the arch demon as it died. Sharahak sent a brief magical signal and waved one tattered wing. Tristan tilted his head to the side in acknowledgement, and turned around to face the two last arch demons. Sharahak heard noise behind him and looked back to see a dozen vampires teleporting in. Their leader, a vampire with wild blond hair going in every direction, took everything in and shrugged to himself. He walked over to Sharahak's pile of rocks and looked up at the demon for a moment.

"This seat taken?" he asked gesturing to a flat rock. Sharahak shook his head and the vampire sat down with a huff. His warriors followed a few moments later.

"My name's Red. We're from the island portal. Finished the last of them and wondered what was going on over here. Mostly we just wanted to get off that rock. It wasn't a nice place before the demons arrived, but now in addition to being the single most boring location on earth it also smells like a slaughterhouse. And not in a good way. Have you ever noticed how demon innards stink?"

"No not really." Sharahak said, watching as Tristan fought the last two arch demons in an explosion of fire, magic, and roaring fury. He had to hand it to them – the arch demons could fight damn well and they did their best, but they were no match for the speed and fury of the dragon. The battle shook the earth and threw fire and magic across the sky as though to scorch the clouds. Finally the two fell in a writhing mass of flames and magic. Tristan magically skinned the two arch demons, then blew their brains out with an explosive spell of some sort.

Sharahak looked over beside him, seeing Red had been watching the fight with a look of absolute delight and awe. As Tristan pulled the skins off the ground Red looked around to Sharahak.

"They really do smell awful when they get blown apart. Completely ruined the island…I mean, it never had any particular attractiveness to begin with, being a lump of rocks that were all exactly the same and plants that all looked like."

"Hmm." Sharahak had never visited the portal on the island that Tristan had asked for.

"It didn't even have any cool bugs to atone for the dreariness. Nasty winds, gray sky, no stars, no sun, freezing cold water, six plant species, total, not even any birds. It was not a nice place, but the smell…well lets just say that the stench doesn't make it any more endearing." The vampire continued. "I tell you, if I never set foot on that island for the next hundred years it still won't be long enough. The cells in Tristan's basement back at his old place in Rome haven't got any color at all, but I'm sure next to that island the rock texture in those cells alone is enough to seem fascinating."

"Huh." Now Sharahak definitely didn't want to visit this island.

"Nice killing, that." The vampire beside him said, nodding to Tristan neatly slicing up a still-moaning demon. "Funny, the arch demons we got all had magical armor."

"These did too." Sharahak explained, "Tristan took a half hour figuring out how to melt it." He pointed with his tail to a mass of metal lying on the ground. It was twitching. "After he wrapped that one up in its own armor the others took theirs off quick."

"Huh, wrapped up like a nice little present. Don't spiders do that?"

"I suppose." Sharahak said after a moment's thought.

"Neat. These arch demons are really something else. We only had twelve, took us two hours to kill them. Eight of us dead too. Well there were sixty alpha demons, two hundred betas and eight hundred of those skinny little wingless things with the bad breath and venom-spitting tongues." Red took off his boot and turned it over to pour the blood out. "Damn things bleed like stuck pigs, gets all over you and runs down into your boots."

Sharahak eyed the chatty vampire for a moment. He had a gash right across the top of his head, front to back, blue demon poison plastered and dried across both legs, yellow and orange powder on his right shoulder from disintegrated melted scales, and mushy green stuff all down his left side, demon magical acid that some beta demons were good at producing. His team was likewise colored with the remains of their battle, and one of them was meticulously cleaning the flesh off of a demon skull. Sharahak shook his head, looking back at the dying arch demons, wondering where on earth Tristan found these vampires.

Tristan left the skins stretched across the ground to dry and walked over to Sharahak. His other vampires were coming down the hill and clustering around a pile of rocks. There was no sign of fighting up over the hill and the portal was dead, melted into poisonous gold. Their battle was over. A sharp spike of magic and a handful of vampires appeared beside him.

"Keeping the skins?" Sharahak asked.

"One never knows where they might be useful." Tristan replied. The gigantic dragon kicked some demon pieces out of the way and settled down, his tattered ice-white hide reflecting the fiery sunset, edged with pale silver. "Red?"

Red saluted sloppily, "demon killing finished my lord. Twelve arch demons, sixty alpha demons, two hundred betas and eight hundred of those skinny little wingless things. Eight of ours dead. I left Kim to look after the injured and the remains, figured we ought to drop by and see what was going on. I told her to get everyone off the island as quickly as possible. It might collapse into the ocean, if we're lucky." He shared a bright grin with the rest of his team.

Tristan chuckled, the deep dragon chuckle making the ground vibrate. "I imagine you've made sure that island will be gone in a few hours. Very well. The demon bodies will all need to be removed to prevent the muggles finding them."

"Done." Red said, getting up, his team leapt up to follow, all of them smiling. Sharahak (and everyone else) watched in confusion as the happy vampires vanished.

"I must remember not to leave any of them stuck on a barren island for two months at any time for the next century." Tristan chuckled again. "Cora? How is Houston?" He turned to one of the vampires who had just appeared.

"Everyone injured is back at the fortress." The short vampire with gold rank symbols on her shoulders reported.

"The city?"

"We've informed the muggles that it was a series of gas line explosions that set off some old oil drums full of chemicals which ignited a minor chemical storage facility which blew up a gas station…Mariel has the full report out to the news people. I'm afraid the devastation was massive and impossible to hide. It will be all over their news all over the world today. We're thinking about calling it arson…actually I think Stocklir has decided it would be best to let all the muggles think today's destruction was deliberate, they won't suspect anything unusual about that."

Tristan nodded and Cora continued. "There were thirty-four arch demons, six thousand eight hundred un-winged ones, two thousand betas and four hundred and fifty alphas. It was a lot to hide in a single city so we blew things up early to make the muggles evacuate, then set off all of the illusions, which worked perfectly as planned. The Illusionists Guild did good work, so did the local magical people."

"Casualties?" Tristan asked.

"Seventy-seven muggles died but we managed to knock the others out and toss them away – they think the explosion sent them flying. Two hundred and forty-one local magical humans died, plus thirty-one aurors dead, three veela, nineteen local vampires…and none of ours." Cora finished with some amount of smugness. "We haven't finished counting the demon bodies because we just had to remove them all as quickly as possible. We burned everything, even the soil, to remove any blood remains the muggles might pick up and soaked everything in the chemicals one might find in old oil drums under a building, and then tossed a match in. Mariel did a good job, the muggles will never catch on and with everything such a mess of chemicals they'll never try to look too hard. The muggle bodies were conveniently burned to a powder so no interest in the injuries."

"Well done," Tristan said, "that sounds excellent. Take your division home and make sure they all have their injuries healed." Core bowed, smiling at the compliments, and signaled the six with her, they all teleported away. Tristan turned back to the four hundred vampires around him. "Gabriel?"

Gabriel, a very tall broad shouldered vampire who had been born just over two thousand years previously under another name and as the son of an Iranian merchant, gave a short bow, right fist over his heart. "Forty-six arch demons killed my lord. There were also three thousand seven hundred beta demons, eight thousand eight hundred twenty of those un-winged ones, and five hundred alphas. Nineteen square kilometers were scorched to bedrock during the fight and about a hundred muggles killed. The South African aurors lost forty-nine of theirs, ninety-two witches and wizards, eighteen lion fae, seven cheetah fae, sixty-two local vampires died along with six of ours." Gabriel said the last with obvious anguish.

Tristan just nodded, some casualties had been expected. "That was very well done then Gabriel. Please take your warriors home. Kihan is handling the clean up."

"My lord," Gabriel bowed again and vanished. Tristan turned to a tall vampire of mixed asian ancestry. "Hitoro, report."

Hitoro had had a rather unfortunate draw, as he had been the most senior vampire fighting with his master, meaning that Tristan had seen how he had commanded his warriors directly. Though really whether or not this was unfortunate was debatable since Tristan could just check his servant's minds for how they had fought. But Tristan respected restraint more than almost anything else. So he would ask Hitoro for a full report and probably not check anything unless something bothered him unusually. Hitoro had served his master with complete devotion for as long as Gabriel had, just about two thousand years, and had long become completely comfortable with his master and faced all sorts of foes at his side…but this was unusual. And so the ancient vampire was edgy and wondering what his Master had thought of his warriors' performance.

"The injured have been removed, eleven of us dead." Tristan had sent only his own vampires out to fight at this, the portal he suspected would produce the most arch demons. In that his guess had been correct, for now. They were not far outside Beijing, and while the locals had been upset at being cut out they had not protested too much. Tristan had let them handle the illusions and distractions for the muggles. "Nine thousand six hundred of those un-winged demons –"

"-order three beta demons." Sharahak said softly. "Of all the sets. Though it doesn't matter much."

"Nine thousand six hundred of them, five thousand one hundred…order 2 beta demons?" Sharahak nodded, those were the betas with wings, such as himself. "And eight hundred forty alpha demons." Hitoro finished.

"Unless I missed some there were ninety-two arch demons." Tristan said. The worst of his injuries healed over, leaving a tapestry of hard rippling jagged scars scattered over him head to toe. He returned to his vampire form at once. He was tired; the arch demons had been every bit as difficult as he had thought they would be...be not as dangerous as he had feared they might be. Knowing that he could handle sixty or more with just his animagus and the usual magics he trained in for such battles was reassuring; he had not had to resort to anything too exotic. This was very advantageous, it meant that he didn't have to overextend himself in this first fight and the vast majority of what he could do, when necessary, was still a secret. Not having to utilize any of his more extravagantly destructive combat magics made the injuries taken in fighting as a dragon worthwhile. "Mulima will be arriving shortly to help the locals clean this up and hide it from the muggles. She has decided to set off several sizeable bombs to account for the destruction. I will handle the portal removal. Hitoro take everyone home and make sure everyone is healed and gets some rest." Tristan glanced around at his warriors, a tiny smile and a hint of fondness beginning to appear in his cold silver eyes. "You've earned it. Well done everyone."

As the vampires around them bowed and vanished, teleporting away, Tristan turned to Sharahak. "Go home and get some rest. My linguistics experts are going to need your help interrogating that." He tilted his head to the trembling caged demon on the ground. It was mostly alive, sort of, wrapped into its own armor and helpless.

"And yourself?"

"This war is just starting. There are sixty ongoing attacks, more portals opening all the time. I will rest when there is time." He had several more regiments waiting for orders to attack, and some of his better vampires were selecting locations where they could be the most useful. His day was far from over and he would likely be fighting for the twenty-four hours straight without stop, especially if more arch demons turned up. Tristan smiled gently, "no need to be concerned, I've been storing magical energy for centuries for just such an emergency."

Sharahak shook his head, completely unsurprised and as always just a little awed. Folding his blood encrusted wings he concentrated on the healer's wing of the fortress he was located in and teleported.

XX

Two hours after releasing the portal Rahkesh was back at Akren, lying on a bed in their hospital and watching dark grey/red liquid drip out of the wound just above his right knee. His broken rib and collarbone had healed quickly but one of the demon sorcerers had given him a nasty curse and bite. The potions the healers had injected him with had been magically drawn directly to the wound and were slowly pushing the liquefied magic and venom out. The potions would then also drain out, to be replaced with healing potions. It wasn't exactly painful but wasn't comfortable either.

Glaring at a sniggering Daray Rahkesh folded his cards and put them aside. Eighteen rounds in a row and Daray had won every single one of them. His vampire friend's decision to teach Rahkesh to play poker was not going well. Sprawled sideways on the bed next to Rahkesh's Daray giggled and dropped his own cards, three kings. The vampire had bloody gashes on his left lower thigh and a magical wound on his chest oozing bright orange puss. The magical wound was the disturbing one, Sharahak didn't recognize the magic at all and neither did anyone else. Daray was showing some signs of resistance, probably due to being part demon himself, and the pain was being countered by morphine. Rahkesh thought the healers might have overdone the drugs a little; Daray wasn't exactly high as a kite, but he certainly wasn't normal, normal Daray didn't giggle. And he certainly didn't snigger through his nose like a drunk llama.

Matolo limped over carrying a chair and sat down beside them. He was followed by Ally, Rianae, and Haedil. The Amadan fae had a long bloody gash running from above his left eye halfway down his cheek and his left arm in a sling. Rianae was regrowing three teeth and her right hand had most of the flesh ripped off while a poisoned slice ran from her right shoulder to her tailbone. Ally had a deep purple bruise on her left bicep and a magical curse had cracked a section of her right kneecap, the damage had been fully repaired leaving only some interesting spiraling scars.

"I would congratulate you on the promotion, but the circumstances don't seem very happy." Ally said to Matolo. The brown haired werewolf shrugged and winced, his right shoulder socket had been just about pulverized. Xayi, the former alpha of his pack, had been killed at some point with a flattened skull. This left Matolo as the apparent alpha of one of Akren's werewolf packs. Rahkesh doubted it would last. Matolo was excellent at being second in command, but he wasn't truly a leader.

"How's Silas?" Rahkesh asked Rianae, as she was the one who had helped Daray drag an unconscious Silas back to Akren. He would have asked Daray, but the vampire was being giggly-twitchy and Rahkesh didn't want him running off to check on Silas…or dye his green while he was still unconscious.

"Out cold. One skull fracture but otherwise he's okay. Nuri's got a torn ear and was raising all sorts of hell until the Headmistress's snow leopard turned up and smacked him." Rianae said, trying to get her shredded hair back into a braid. Daray snickered hysterically and choked on the blood he was drinking.

"Ignore him. The healers misjudged the morphine dose." Rahkesh explained. "I've been keeping him from doing anything too stupid."

"This explains a lot." Ally muttered. "I could hear him laughing earlier from the opposite end of the building, sounded like a hyena under a giggling charm. I'm going to head down to the student's lounge off the dining hall. Someone's got a few radios set up to various stations reporting on the battles. They need help recording and making sense of all the reports they're getting."

"I'll be down in a few hours to help." Rahkesh volunteered. The radios had nothing to do with radio waves, they transmitted and received magical signals, but somehow the name radio had gotten stuck on at some point.

"No you won't." One of the healers snapped from right behind Rahkesh's bed. Rahkesh managed not to jump, barely. "You're going to sleep as soon as that wound is closed up. You'll be exhausted from the healing potions."

"How long until this is done?" Rahkesh asked.

"Three, maybe four hours." The healer, Professor Faras, estimated. The short elderly woman scowled at him from under curly white bangs, "no running off on some bizarre and dangerous stunt. As soon as you leave here you're going to sleep."

"Gee Rahkesh, it's almost like she knows you." Daray snickered as the Professor went to look after another student who'd had both lungs crushed.

Sygra flew down in wyvern form and transformed just above the outside windowsill. Landing on the tiny ledge she then slipped through the rock wall and into the room, dropping down to land on Rahkesh's pillow. Rahkesh often forgot about Sygra's seldom used ability to pass through solid objects. She didn't like using it since it was uncomfortable, but there were very few walls Sygra couldn't get through when she wished to.

How are your injuries? Rahkesh asked. He had healed Sygra and she had gone out flying to be sure everything felt okay and none of the scars hindered her movement too much. Sygra had been lucky; all of her injuries had been from the demon's claws and fangs. Poisoned, but not magical and not lethal.

Fine. The scars ache a little but I suppose that will take time to heal. Sygra said, coiling up on his pillow and going to sleep instantly.

Justin appeared in the doorway and sat down on the edge of Rahkesh's bed. "Claire's dead, so is Wave."

"Three? I had thought it would be worse," Rianae said, stroking the thick bandage around Justin calf muscle where a demon had stuck its tail spike through his leg.

"I think it was the new armored clothing." Justin sighed.

"Does anyone know yet why the demons attacked out in the middle of nowhere rather than in the cities?" Rahkesh asked.

Justin grinned tiredly, "yes, the muggles stopped them."

"They did what?" Daray asked incredulously.

"The muggles stopped them." Justin explained, grinning.

"How?" Rianae asked.

"It would be a bit hard to hide a massive cavern filled with a golden portal in a muggle city." Justin explained. "They'd find it no matter how many muggle repelling spells were on it. Those things can't be hidden very well, you can't shrink them or alter them in any way or they won't work. So the muggles started finding portals and kept melting them down for the gold. Only with some of the older ones if you melt them they blow up and transform into a gaseous thing that dissipates. The ones the muggles didn't manage to melt down either got blown up or removed. Except for the ones the muggles accidentally crushed or collapsed when they were building underground. Most of the portals in the cities when magical people live must have been located in muggle-owned areas. They've all been gone for decades."

"Who figured this out?" Rahkesh asked as Daray collapsed laughing across both their beds.

"Holly Jemi – one of Stocklir's tactics people, and Julius Nandan, who's the second in command vampire over in Paris." Justin said. Rahkesh made a mental note to meet Julius at some point; he was a parseltongue and had supported Rahkesh's decision to attack the Master of Vienna when that vampire had attempted to take some of the young parseltongues Voldemort had collected.

"So the muggles took care of the demon's attack plan for us?"

"Unfortunately the muggles didn't get to all of them." Justin said softly.

"Where?" Haedil asked.

"Houston, Beijing, Madrid, Prague, Graz, Luxor, Leningrad, Salvador…those were the major cities hit. The more remote locations were scattered, several in entirely magical communities, the small ones that are everywhere they can hide. The details were very sketchy but there were five locations in Russia, two in Greece, one in Italy, two in France, one in Poland…half a dozen in Brazil, three in Chile, two in Jordan, one in a major magical community in Syria, two in Uzbekistan, two in Egypt, two in Japan, one in Vietnam, one on some unnamed little island in Indonesia, and one that attempted to open in Israel but somehow malfunctioned and self destructed, took a half dozen aurors with it."

"Wonder how they bungled that?" Rianae muttered. Justin shrugged and continued.

"There were just over a hundred portals opened today, those are just the ones where the fighting is mostly over and the body counting has started." Justin closed his eyes and rested his head on Rianae's shoulder. "The muggles might have gotten a lot of the portals but the demons haven't let that deter them. There was a second wave an hour after the first, different portals in very different locations, those were mostly in cities. Fortunately we were mostly prepared for that." Justin said, opening his eyes again he frowned at them, troubled, "when I was down in the radio center ten minutes ago they were guessing there might be twenty thousand magical beings dead."

XX

Mr. Asmodaeus,

As the most prominent of the world parselmouths (please correct me if this is not the case) I thought you would be the best person to approach with this matter. Given the unique gifts of your kind it has been decided that any parselmouths with fully intact healing abilities will be given priority placing in one of the shelters. I had hoped to have more time to search for and identify the parselmouths in my country but, with today's invasion, we are out of time. I do not know if you keep any lists of living parselmouths, but if you know of any who are not already secured by their home nations please refer them to me, I have a dozen places reserved in our largest shelter.

Margaret Williams

Chair of the Committee for Refugee Aid

United States of America

Rahkesh read the letter twice. The courier, an Akren graduate and a second tier Threadmage, had knocked on his door an hour after dawn. Rahkesh had been meditating, identifying what injuries still remained after a nights rest and many healing potions.

The children he had rescued from Voldemort were with Mr. Ramdas in India. The Indian government had given them all places in their most secure shelter. Rahkesh thought perhaps he should have been a little disturbed at the special preference given them, but he knew this was just good tactics. The eldest of those children was ten, in four or five years, especially with training, he would be an asset in healing. The other children would be extremely useful as well, eventually. If they were going to be fighting a war then parselmouth healers would be a great help. No one knew their limits, but with so many of the greatest healers having been parselmouths (often secretly or unknowingly) it was not too much to expect that those children would come in very useful. Rahkesh trusted Mr. Ramdas to ensure that they were treated well, and who would want to make a healer angry anyway?

He did know of a few other parselmouths. Minister Yi's young son Kwan was in a shelter. Julius Nandan of Paris was not an intact parselmouth and in any case he was at his creator's side leading France's vampires. Fayina, a vampire who owned a business that produced and sold blood-based drinks for vampires, had drawn a spot in one of the shelters. Kimberly Masi, another vampire whose abilities were not intact, was currently working for Vladimir Konovalov and as a guard she was a trained fighter and not about to go into hiding. Vinius Corwellius was a vampire whose gift may or may not be intact and whose only response when Rahkesh had contacted him about his book had been a reply that he didn't like to "talk to anyone" or "write anything down" or "meet people" or "go anywhere" and would Rahkesh please never contact him again? Rahkesh had no idea where he lived or who he really was, and none of his vampire friends had ever heard the name. Namach had told Rahkesh about him, but even Namach had never met him, had no idea where he lived, and had only heard of his existence through one other vampire five hundred years previously. Whoever Corwellius was he didn't socialize much and Rahkesh figured contacting him was probably a waste of time.

"Did Ms. Williams ask you to take back any reply or should I owl her?" Rahkesh asked. The Threadmage was a middle aged woman with graying red hair, the tiniest nose Rahkesh had ever seen, and pale hazel eyes. She had millions of long bits of string at the hem of everything she wore, oddly enough it looked good on her. It would be odd to have a Threadmage playing courier, an Akren graduate no less, but Kara was someone Rahkesh knew a lot about through Rianae; Kara was an oddity in that she was amazingly skilled at magical transportation and even better at working defensive threadmagic into clothing, but was singularly inept at anything to do with fighting or healing. And she lived in the US. With the demons running around her ability to hop all over the world in seconds made her highly valuable.

"I'll take back anything you have. I'm going back anyway to say goodbye to my mother, she's a muggle."

"I wish I had something for you to take back." Rahkesh said truthfully.

"You don't know any other parselmouths?" Kara looked a bit disbelieving.

"I know several, the human ones are already safe, the vampires are either safe, off fighting, or completely out of contact. And their abilities never seem to be intact anyway. I'm sorry, I too wish there had been more time to look for parselmouths. But please tell Ms. Williams that we are very, very rare. Having two born each century would be interesting, the large number of parselmouth children in existence right now is already something that has never occurred before, that I know of, and I am already very concerned about our sudden abundance and how it came to be. Finding more of us would probably be a very bad thing indeed."

After Kara left Rahkesh got up and limped over to his balcony. He was exhausted. He might have an awful lot of magic energy, but he wasn't old enough yet to have built up any real endurance. His fight the day before had used most of what he had and it would take time to recover. Not for the first time Rahkesh wished he'd had a few years more training, not just for the knowledge and practice, but for the magical endurance as well. As it was his usefulness in a long drawn out conflict was limited by how long he could fight for. Going all out for a day would require a few days of recovery, and Rahkesh hated feeling so helpless and worthless.

"How's your knee?"

Rahkesh didn't even startle this time. He had become very accustomed to Daray's sudden appearances in his rooms. How the vampire did it was a mystery, but Rahkesh had just about given up trying to figure it out.

"It aches. How's your chest?" Rahkesh asked, turning around. Daray's chest, he saw, was still covered in white bandages. Lounging across Rahkesh's couch in soft black silk pants, no shoes, and a dark red silk shirt that hung unbuttoned around the thick bandages the vampire did not appear to be in any pain.

"I can't feel anything through the numbing potions." Daray said. "My animagus has finally calmed down too, maybe it's the numbing potions...or-"

"-or the fighting." Rahkesh finished with a wry grin that Daray returned. Both of their animagus forms were…intense. Having a part of you hell bent on combat could be a bit difficult. It was a problem he and Daray shared and frequently dealt with by flying up and down the Akren mountains as animagi.

Satan flew in from the balcony and dropped onto Daray's shoulder. The vampire bat leaned down and sniffed at the bandages around Daray's chest. Making a very distressed low whine the bat turned around and chirped at Daray. "Hush you, that's just the venom draining out." Daray told his familiar. "He gets all distressed when I'm injured" he told Rahkesh, picking Satan up and petting him soothingly.

"Was he out there with us?"

"Yep, got four of those betas, the ones without wings." Daray said proudly. "Pretty darn good considering he can't transform into his larger form right now."

"Why not?"

"He got into a spat with a young harpy when I went home to help prepare the family fortress." Daray explained, "he won't be able to transform until the scars on his eye ridges heal."

"A harpy."

"A young one. I think it wanted to eat him. Its parents apologized…though they shouldn't have bothered since Satan put their little brat in the hospital." Daray was very, very proud of his familiar. Rahkesh rolled his eyes. Satan didn't look particularly threatening most of the time, but the bat was magical and could do stuff that Daray still hadn't told Rahkesh about.

"Have you been to the communications center?" Rahkesh asked.

"I stopped in there an hour ago. There have been some good reports. Namach and his warriors did a heck of job. World wide there's been two hundred arch demons reported, Namach and has warriors got one hundred and eighty-four of them plus thirty-eight thousand and something other assorted demons. That army we ran into up in Canada turned out to be nine and half thousand of those ones without wings and six hundred alphas. Strange that there were no betas like Sharahak there."

"Who got to count the bodies?" Rahkesh asked, that must have been extremely unpleasant.

"The first year students." Daray chuckled.

"Didn't Sharahak say the demon army has millions?" Rahkesh asked.

"They do. But it doesn't matter if they can't move them. This first wave was plenty, but they've also destroyed a lot of portals. Vladimir Konovalov is reporting in some ninety thousand beta demons of various types appearing in several locations in Russia. Fortunately his vampires are fairly militaristic and very well trained. They ought to be, they've been exterminating muggle vampires by the thousand for the past year. Vladimir was going to kill off all the young magical vampires because there were too many, but someone on his staff suggested drafting them all to his army instead. Anyone who is still alive when we get to this new world might be allowed to live. And so Vladimir has no shortage of not-so-well-trained fighters. The demons only had him outnumbered nine to one."

"That's odd, I had heard he had just killed all the young magical ones."

"Deliberate misinformation? I would not be surprised, we are talking about a vampire who learned to diabolical from Namach. Oh and the Indian vampires did the same thing; rounded up all the excess young magical ones and gave them the option of fighting and maybe living, or dying right then and there. Not surprisingly they all chose to fight."

"Rianae says that just about all the shelters are full and in lockdown." Rahkesh said, he had heard from her very early that morning after her mother had finished making sure that all the fae tribes and vampire armies knew each others communications codes properly.

"They should be. There're still new portals opening and more demons arriving. The carnage has been immense. The estimate of the death toll keeps going up. There're two people over at the MLFC keeping track, or trying to. They're at forty thousand dead as of a few hours ago and the number just keeps getting bigger."

"And here we are not doing a damn thing about it." Rahkesh muttered. He hated being useless. There were magical beings under attack and dying all over the world and here he was sitting around waiting to recover enough to be able to fight again.

"Can't be out there all the time, that's why everyone's working in teams. About a quarter of the alumni are out fighting right now. In a few days we'll be back and whoever gets injured today will be recovering." Daray pointed out.

"I know that." Rahkesh snapped, "it's just knowing that there are a lot of places that were not well prepared and the majority didn't get a spot in one of the shelters and can't hold out long at all once the demons find them."

"Which is why every large population center was shut down as soon as the attack began. With everyone scattered it'll be harder to find all the little groups."

"Except for the ones with children." Rahkesh reminded him. Kids couldn't help but give off enough magic to be located, assuming the demons' new hunting magics were as good as they thought they were.

"The Amadan have been killing their young." Daray told him, "everyone under a certain age has been killed so everyone else could escape without leaving the demons any new slaves."

"They killed their own children?" Rahkesh was horrified.

Daray wasn't, "necessity Rahkesh. Amadan children give off more magic than those of any other sentient magical life form. They couldn't hide. They couldn't fill the shelters with just kids, who would raise them and train them? Even at one adult for every ten children there wouldn't be enough adults to look after all of them, and, far more important really, the magical knowledge would be lost with all the adults who died. Writing stuff down isn't the best way to teach it, especially with Amadan, and so the next generation would probably not be as able fighters as those alive right now. They couldn't just abandon the kids either, then the demons would catch them and they'd wind up as slaves supporting demon society. What other solution is there?"

None, really. There wasn't any other solution. Intellectually Rahkesh knew that. The Amadan were choosing to keep the greatest number alive rather than die fighting a battle they couldn't win. It still seemed awfully cold, and some part of him thought it just plain wrong. But Rahkesh suppressed that part, the Amadan could have died fighting for their children, and the children would still wind up as slaves after the adults were dead. There was no possibility of keeping their children alive long enough for the new world to be ready. But without the youngest everyone else had a good chance at evading capture long enough for some of them to make it.

"I wonder when everyone else will have to make that choice?" Rahkesh wondered aloud. All magical children of every species gave off magic. It couldn't be reliably hidden long term or suppressed. Eventually, if the new world wasn't ready soon enough, every species was going to have to face the same choice: die fighting and have the children enslaved anyway, let the children be enslaved knowing that there was no hope of rescue and that this happening would prop up demon society to the detriment of all future generations, or kill their own offspring and keep the adults to fight and to eventually rebuild.

"Soon I should think." Daray didn't seem terribly concerned. "But I suspect a lot of people won't think of it on their own. And they won't like it. People get irrational about their children."

Rahkesh decided that he didn't feel like arguing about whether or not being upset at the idea of killing your children was irrational or not. Under the circumstances being upset was not irrational, but any of the options other than murder were irrational. It wasn't a choice he liked. It wasn't a choice at all, and just because it made sense and there was no other way didn't mean that everyone would do it. He had a suspicion that the demons were going to wind up with a great many child slaves, after their parents uselessly died trying to protect them. And the new world, when it was ready, was going to have a very small population indeed; far too many were going to die fighting for those who could not be saved.

"I should head over to the MLFC building. The team that was supposed to check on the new world ought to be back." Rahkesh thought aloud. "I have to be in Europe later today anyway, I'm going to a wyvern colony with Sygra to try to recruit them to help fight. It shouldn't be too hard, the demons would probably want to eat or enslave the, or both. Maybe I'll go ask how our new world is doing on my way to the colony."

"I asked one of our alumni, they're not back yet. We've got six of ours over there waiting for them. They're some of the elderly alumni who aren't able to do much else right now."

"They're still not back? Its been days!" Rahkesh was alarmed. All the team was supposed to do was to get to the new world, check to see if it existed, and then get back. They weren't supposed to do anything else, just make sure the air was breathable. If everything else had failed and most of the life forms that should have been there didn't exist it didn't matter, there was no where else to go, and so the team had just be responsible for making sure it was there.

"Maybe they got stuck." Daray suggested. "Just because a way to travel between worlds was set up thousands of years ago doesn't mean it still works both ways."

"Wonderful. We're going to wind up sending a search and rescue team to retrieve the reconnaissance team." Rahkesh groaned.


	2. Chapter Two

I expect you will be safe here. I have removed about half the wards and adjusted the others. The only things remaining are the ones that detect a presence. The defensive ones are there, but dormant. They will only be activated if someone triggers the outer wards. This way the magic used is so little that I doubt the demons will sense it. Rahkesh explained to Siraka and Xasseri. The two snakes were still at his little house. Rahkesh, not yet ready to fight, had decided his time would be better spent ensuring his property was safe.

In the event that this new world does exist, I think I would like to go there, if that is possible? Xasseri asked. He may be old, but Rahkesh had learned that Xasseri's wits were sharp and physically he couldn't have been fitter. He also had a healthy sense of adventure and an interest in anything new that was odd to find in an otherwise ordinary nonmagical snake.

It should be possible. Once we know if it exists, and if we will be going there, I will check on the possibility of bringing you. Siraka, would you like to live in this new world, if you could?

I would like to go as well. Siraka said, she was looped around the base of the Dyalnos tree in the sunlight. Siraka was a quiet snake, usually inclined towards being fairly easy-going and content with a good shelter and good food. However she was not always so passive and had a willingness to fight or to explore. Spending time with Xasseri had her slowly becoming more talkative and Rahkesh was sure she and the Xasseri would have a good time exploring a new world…so long as they did not get eaten by anything there. Perhaps he would place a few protective spells on them.

Then I will try to make that happen. Rahkesh promised. It probably would not be too hard, probably. The team sent to investigate the new world had not yet returned and there was now serious talk of sending a second team to find them.

Glancing upwards Rahkesh spotted Sygra in the upper leaves of his blood tree. Anything unusual up there?

No. Though I'm not sure how I would know if there was something wrong…it looks fine. Sygra said, poking her head down between two blood red leaves. Rahkesh nodded, his blood tree had healed well from having some of its wood removed for his wand. There was a healing scar but the gap left was gone and Rahkesh could see nothing wrong with it. Over his head the elegant spread of blood red leaves fanned out across the ceiling, the sunlight filtering through making them glow brilliantly.

Certain that it was doing fine Rahkesh examined the concealment spells on the roof, spreading them thin while drawing magic away so as to make them less obvious. He didn't need the demons to find this place. Who knew what they would do with a Dyalnos tree? It was possible they may be able to even use it against the elves, which would surely mean Rahkesh's death, if the elves didn't kill him just for possessing one of their precious trees anyway. He would relocate the tree back to Akren as soon as the new container on his balcony was ready for it.

Sygra, are you ready to go? Having finished with his house Rahkesh was now ready to attend to his second reason for being home. He had received an unusual invitation, to a wyvern colony in Scotland. The colony was currently a second home for wyverns the demons had attacked in France and Germany. There was a current attack underway in Poland and another in Greece. Why the demons had decided to target wyverns was unknown, but they had annihilated a colony in Turkey the day before. The humans who worked at the colony, mostly trying to keep muggles from finding them and trying to communicate with the beasts, had called in Sygra to try to explain to the wyverns what was going on. Rahkesh had not realized that his familiar's wyvern form was so well known. However, given that she had transformed when fighting Voldemort and again during the first demon attack, he supposed he probably should not have been surprised that wyvern researchers would take note of her existence.

Yes, I am ready. Sygra dropped out of the tree branches and coiled around his neck and shoulders. Rahkesh walked out of the greenhouse and off the property. Just because they were at war didn't mean he wasn't being cautious about his fellow Earthlings. He didn't want anyone following his magical trail through the wards. Outside and two minutes fast walking away he pulled out the portkey he'd been sent and tapped it twice with his left index finger.

The wyvern colony was a large island covered in rocky hills and dense forests. Shrouded heavily in dank gray mist that made the air feel heavy the place seemed other-worldly. And a bit dreary. But Rahkesh could hear the movement of animals in the trees and the field was full of wildflowers, under the dull cloak of gray that hung over everything. The sky was dark gray, but not raining, and the mist and sky blended into the gray rocks, leaving the trees and bushes lying around sticking out as though they were on a rolling gray sea.

Not very pleasant is it? Rahkesh asked. Do you like it?

How would I know what real wyverns find pleasant? A snake would not enjoy this, but perhaps the weather is just bad today. This would be nice with some sun.

How about you transform and let everyone know we're here?

Sygra transformed into her wyvern form and rose high over Rahkesh's head. He paused momentarily to admire the young basilisk. As she was as a snake Sygra was as a wyvern – all inky black scales edged in silver. The faint silvery shimmer all over the deep black made it a bit like looking up at a starry sky. Deep, deep black and a silver shimmer everywhere. And while she was quite young (at least Rahkesh thought she was, he had no idea really) she was certainly bigger than any bird.

I've missssed flying. Sygra hissed softly down to him from not far above Rahkesh's head.

And this from the snake who told me she hated flying on broom or carpet and felt sick in the air. Rahkesh teased.

Don't be ridiculoussss, that was, as you said, as a SNAKE. Sygra retorted, if snakesss were meant to fly they would have wings, they do not, wyverns do. Therefore wyvern are made to fly and therefore as a wyvern I enjoy flying.

Do you know how to let the others know you're here?

Yessss, though I've never met another wyvern before. Sygra sounded a little nervous.

Sygra's dark wings beat and she rose up past the tree tops. Ascending in a slow spiral she gave a few raspy calls. Not the loud raucous scream wyverns were so known for but more of a soft rasping call that didn't sound unpleasant at all and lasted for half a minute before drifting to a higher note and then trailing off and going went low. It was just a contact call, a signal saying "here I am". But the tone was fairly unique to each wyvern and the unfamiliar voice would not go unnoticed. Rahkesh spotted a trail and headed for it. The people he was meeting would be waiting for him somewhere just up the hill.

From somewhere off in the distance a warbling cry went up and moments later Rahkesh saw sinuous winged beasts appearing through the mists. They were fairly far away, but coming in fast. The wyverns looked like wraiths swimming through the mist, becoming more and more solid with every second. He hurried up the path to the top of a large rock outcropping and waited while Sygra settled beside him, winding her tail around the rocks and half folding her wings back.

A short man in jeans, an old gray t-shirt under a dark blue sweater, and with an orange bandanna around his head, came out of the forest ahead of the approaching wyverns. He was soon followed by two more men, one with an orange sweater and the other wearing an orange visor. Rahkesh guessed the orange was to differentiate them at a distance from anything the wyvern might be inclined to try to eat. In this foggy forest the orange made them easily identifiable rather than vague moving forms.

"Good morning, Mr. Asmodaeus, correct?" The man with the orange bandanna asked cheerfully.

"Just Rahkesh, and you sir?"

"Terrance Thornwood, these are my assistants Joshua Farith and Sam Kolberg." Joshua waved cheerfully and wiped his glasses off on his orange sweater, Sam just nodded. Rahkesh nodded to each, Thornwood had a daughter at Akren. Malla Thornwood was in her final year and Rahkesh had only met her twice. She was very well known simply because she was always in the library, the greenhouse, or the potions laboratories. She worked harder than just about anyone at the school and was aiming to become a Master at Potions and Herbology – everyone said she would get both before the age of twenty-five.

"Morning," Rahkesh said cheerfully. "This here is Sygra, my familiar."

"What species of wyvern is she?" Joshua asked.

"I have no idea." Rahkesh admitted, "and neither does she." He didn't know if they knew about Sygra not actually being a wyvern. They probably did since she had transformed several times now in front of crowds of people. But maybe they thought that she was a wyvern first and a snake second. Whatever they knew about her Rahkesh was not going to give away too many more details. The less he spoke of her abilities the more likely everyone was to forget they existed.

"Interesting," Joshua mused, walking around to look at Sygra from various views. Sygra twisted a little, subtly showing off. "Where did you find her?"

"In a muggle pet shop," Rahkesh said, grinning a little as all three men turned to stare at him. "She didn't have wings then, just looked like a snake, and then the wings appeared a few months later. You can imagine my surprise."

"Indeed." Sam muttered, "the local colony contains sixty wyverns, we have one hundred and seventy more that escaped the attacks on their colonies. Some of them are injured and we have a large multinational team on site. Because of the injured ones the others are all being a bit overprotective. I don't recognize your familiar's species at all, but hopefully the wyverns here will communicate with her."

In the distance four wyverns began to descend slowly out of the sky. Terrance glanced back at them briefly before gesturing to Sygra to go towards them. "How well can you communicate with her?"

"We have a very good telepathic connection. Fully thoughts in word form." Rahkesh said, and grinned again as the three men stopped to stare at him again.

"Really? Wyverns are capable of forming complete thoughts in that way?" Joshua asked breathlessly.

"Well…I don't know about wyverns much…but Sygra can." And he wasn't going to mention that she was also a snake and he could speak parseltongue. Common knowledge though it may be, they seemed to not be aware that Sygra could also turn into a snake. Or if they did know they weren't mentioning it, and so Rahkesh would not either.

"How fascinating…does she understand what we would like her to do?" Terrance asked.

"Yes. I've explained to her that if possible she should explain about the demons attacking and that fighting together we all have a better chance of winning this war and keeping the demons away. I'm not sure how she'll go about doing it - she's never met another wyvern before."

"Never?" Terrance sounded concerned, "no socialization with her own kind?"

"No. Only with humans, through my mind, when I concentrate, she can understand some English." Rahkesh explained.

The four wyverns circled them in the air several times before the largest folded its wings and dropped slowly down onto a rock pile twenty meters away. It was a massive gray and white beast, gray down the snake part of the body and a gray and white fire-like pattern across the wings. The others rose higher and continued circling.

Ready? Rahkesh asked Sygra across their link. It was not easy to communicate this way, they had to force the thoughts across and had to form the complete sentence before sending it, but the fact that they could communicate telepathically at all was amazing enough.

Yes. Sygra hissed softly to him. I know what to say. She added to his mind. Just leave it to me, wyverns do not like being attacked, do not appreciate being exterminated, and will be pleased to know what is going on and how to fight back.

XX

"Try that again and I'll exchange all of your blood for embalming fluid and see how long it takes you to die." Rahkesh snarled at the vampire pinned to the wall. Rahkesh's curses, glowing ropes of sickly yellow magic, wound around the vampire's neck like tentacles. They were flesh liquefying curses. Rahkesh's latest trick.

He had just returned to Akren that afternoon after finishing up at the wyvern colony. That trip had been an outstanding success. Wyverns were not terribly intelligent, more so than the average chimpanzee but not much more. It had taken nearly an hour for Sygra to communicate everything the wyverns needed to know. Amongst themselves the information transfer had been very fast, and now the wyverns fully ready to fight at the next opportunity. Rahkesh and Sygra had established a very rudimentary communication method between wyverns and handlers using symbols, and left pleased that they had succeeded.

When not fighting Akren students still had classes with whatever Professors were available. After a two hour healing class Rahkesh had eaten lunch with several classmates while studying, before heading back to his rooms. The vampire, Sean Norrin, had ambushed him just around the corner from his rooms. He had actually managed to knock Rahkesh off his feet and into one of the many empty study lounges scattered all over the school…but he hadn't been expecting Rahkesh to take a move he'd learned from Ally and immediately jam the fingers of his left hand straight into his attacker's eye socket. If it worked on an elf chances were it would work on a vampire just fine.

Sean shivered away from the tentacles, blue eye flying around looking for an escape, the flesh on his neck hissing, fizzling, and turning to liquid where they touched him. Rahkesh had torn out one of his eyes before Sean's first three curses had hit. Sean was very, very fast and Rahkesh had flesh peeling off his hip, a broken rib, and his left hand was next to useless, completely numbed. He'd hit Sean with a curse that caused massive nerve spasms, blown up his sinuses, and dissolved the bones in his right foot.

The fight had been quick and almost entirely magical. Sean had figured he had the upper hand, having gotten around any electricity with threadmagic. He'd also managed some impressive threadmagic clothing wards, probably guessing that Rahkesh knew nothing of threadmagic. Well it wasn't much of a guess; everyone who wanted to know could find out that Rahkesh had left that class after failing miserably. Rahkesh had gotten around his clothing wards by sliding his curses under them, so Sean wasn't very smart.

Rahkesh silently cast another healing spell on his hip. He didn't recognize the curse and it hurt, he'd have to go find a cure quickly. "Well?"

Sean shrugged as much as he could with the yellow curses looped around him like snakes. "Everyone knows you're blood is powerful…I had to try." It was a lame excuse and the look on Sean's face said he knew it, and was trying hard to make it real by acting like it was.

"No you didn't." Rahkesh stated and stepped back, sending a spike of magic into the curses.

Sean hit the floor screaming as the trailing curses leaped down along his spine, curled around and slowly dragged back up it from his tailbone to the back of his neck. Rahkesh wound the curses around his neck again and waited for the shaking and screaming to stop. It took a while. There wasn't any permanent damage to the spine, but the flesh over it had been liquefied into a bloody mess.

"Are you going to try that again?" Rahkesh asked with deceptive gentleness.

"No."

"How nice of you." Rahkesh sighed. "Do you know what you are going to do?"

Sean blinked at him, blood dripping from a head wound down over his face. "What?"

"From today until you graduate if you so much as hear a whisper of any of your fellow vampires planning to try to go after my blood, you will tell me as quickly as possible." Rahkesh said, drawing a curse just under Sean's jaw while dropping the others until the wrapped around his chest and arms.

Silence.

"What are you going to be doing from now until you graduate?" Rahkesh asked very gently.

"Telling you about any plans to get your blood, from vampires only." Sean said slowly, looking like he wanted to spit on Rahkesh.

"Very good. What is going to happen to you if you don't?" Rahkesh asked.

Sean waited, eyes slowly starting to fill with fear as he realized that this was not over yet.

Rahkesh smiled and let the curses loose, straight into Sean's armpits.

Whether or not Sean would ever hear anything worth telling Rahkesh about didn't really matter all that much. It wasn't like Rahkesh would know if Sean knew about any future attacks on him. So it was a rather useless demand. Rahkesh could probably have demanded a lot of other things. He had not because he had more than a liter of Sean's blood from the fight, Sean's best knife with a wicked curving enchanted obsidian blade, and since he'd hacked Sean's right ear off that lovely red diamond earring was his now anyway. It was a perfect diamond, flawless, excellent for conducting magic. To use it as jewelry – as Sean had been - was a statement of wealth. Rahkesh could find better uses for it than that.

And if Rahkesh heard of any plot to attack him that Sean would have known about, but had not informed him of, he'd just have to go after the vampire again. Rahkesh would probably be able to get his vampire friends to keep him informed of anything Sean should be telling him but wasn't. Or of any future plans Sean had that he happened to mention to another vampire. All he'd have to do would be to give them Sean's blood.

Except for the little bit Rahkesh would keep, since a vampire's blood did have a lot of uses and you could curse someone with just a sample of their blood. Rahkesh had never tried that. He probably wasn't ready for that kind of magic yet. But some day he would be. And it wasn't like Sean was going to die so soon, unless the demons got him.

Limping back to his rooms, listening to Sean's echoing screams with a grim smile, Rahkesh slammed his door and went to his shelf of healing potions. He was starting to feel his hand again so that curse was wearing off, and he could heal the rib easily enough, but the flesh bubbling and peeling on his hip was a bloody mess and hurt horribly.

Rahkesh chose to use a potion to heal his rib, and then flipped open a book of curses, the edges of the pages filled with his scribbled notes and observations of each. Rubbing a healing potion designed for torn flesh into his hip, and seeing it only helped a little, he picked up another book of curses that did damage to the flesh and sat down to figure out what Sean had decided to use.

Why on earth had Sean decided to attack him now, when the demons were invading and everyone had better things to be doing? It didn't make any sense and while Rahkesh would never claim to understand the workings of the vampiric mind they were usually a bit more logical than that. Sean must have assumed that he could win while not having either of them wind up too damaged to fight; to do otherwise was a risk to Earth as even one missing fighter right now might make a difference. And Rahkesh could do an awful lot of damage against the demons, even if his thunderbird form had proven to not have such fantastic endurance. Surely Sean had thought of that. And so he had probably used curses he knew how to fix.

Rahkesh skimmed the first book and put it aside. Limping over to his shelf he pulled out a potion for removing damaging magic from the body. He hated to use this; it literally pulled the magic right out, usually leaving a serious wound behind. But this curse was only for making skin bubble and peel so the damage left wouldn't be too extreme. And he really needed to get this curse off him. It was starting to spread down his leg.

Would a pain relieving potion help?

I already took one. Anymore and my reactions will slow a bit. However I can rub one all over that leg first. Rahkesh replied as he looked through his shelf for that potion. And maybe a nerve numbing hex. He really hated using this potion, but right now he didn't really have time for find the exact counter-curse. Assuming Sean hadn't made this one up on his own. Rahkesh was pretty sure he hadn't since he'd seen Ally do this curse wandlessly once on a pushy vampire, but she wasn't around right now to ask about countering it.

Did you spell that silly excuse for a leech so the wounds take a long time to heal?

No. I think he understands that he will not be fighting me again anytime soon. It didn't take that long to defeat him. I'll watch his behavior for a few days and see if he looks resentful enough to attack.

He will not. However hard he may have tried to hide it and act like it was no big deal he smelled thoroughly defeated.

Some day I will do some bloodmagic so I can smell like you can.

Or you could learn to use your basilisk sense of smell in human form.

That would involve transforming only some cells in my nose and making my brain be able to know what they mean. Rahkesh pointed out, watching as the potion yanked the magic out of his leg, and removed a big section of skin. Cursing softly in parseltongue he healed it with another potion and a few spells while directing the mess of black potion, heavy with destructive magic, into a strongly enchanted jar. It was useless for most things. He could only use it for hurting himself; the magic and potion had both been worked on him. However the destructive magic it contained might have a use if he some day found a way to separate from it the attachment to himself. And so it was saved, as he saved virtually everything magical.

That done with Rahkesh cleaned the blood off the carpet and chair and took out his cauldron and a potions book. He had a few things he needed to brew before transfiguration class.

Since the war started classes had been rearranged, with far more three or four hour seminars offered. Students could choose which ones to attend. While everyone's schedules had been worked out so that they still had all their usual classes, at different times and on an irregular basis, the workload was a bit less and the extra seminars had become fuller. This one was on speeding up how fast a transfiguration happened, something most everyone would probably think useful in battle. It was part of the ordinary transfiguration curriculum so the students likely to be present were those who hadn't taken transfiguration beyond the second level or so. After the class Rahkesh planned on eating dinner in his rooms while brewing more potions. He had several ideas for seriously messing with the demons.

XX

Twelve technicians sat at their consoles, watching an array of hippocampus hair screens, computer screen, enchanted gemstones, and bloodmetal runes done on obsidian. They were the midnight to 8am shift, and had been waiting patiently for days without so much as a spark off any of their communicators or sensors. Nothing. The team sent to investigate the new world had vanished across the magical boundary without a trace.

Outside the doors and down the hallway another rooms was filled with people, all talking loudly. They were the politicians, generals, and sorcerers responsible for sending the first team into the new world, and they were the ones who everyone now looked to for an answer as to what could possibly have happened. They didn't have any answers, no one did, all they had was theories. Theories they had been debating for six hours now, and, having come no closer to a consensus, they had now moved on to the next question; what to do now?

It was clear that another team would have to be sent, but only after a thorough investigation on the magical barrier between the muggle world and the magical one they had created overlaying it. This investigation had been completed that day and now the main questions was who to send on the next attempt.

The real problem was that a lot of the best people to send on the next team were also needed desperately to keep up the fight against the demons. All the best options were sorcerers of various species of considerable magical ability, who were currently turning that ability, in whatever way they could, towards fighting off the demons. The best threadmages were all busy on projects needed by the warriors on the many battlefields, as were the best metal workers the goblins had ever produced, so were the Bloodmages, the necromancers, the healers, the mind mages, the stone and feather magic experts, the empaths, illusionists, telepaths, potions masters and obviously all of their best warriors.

That they had already lost a great many of the magical world's best minds during the creation of their new world had been a blow they had expected and had been able to absorb. But if the first recon team was gone…if they were dead…then they had also lost an additional forty beings that the magical world could not really afford to lose. Sending out the last of the best on the next team just wasn't possible. The risk was too great.

And so they had gathered, again, and some hundred and eighty beings were fighting over who should go on the next recon team. They had been at it for half a day with only two names on the list.

Against one wall a truly bored Lord Hadrian had conjured a desk, or just magically relocated the one from his office, and was doing paperwork. Being the Lord of the London vampires came with a lot of power and prestige, and a lot of paperwork if he wanted to keep the vampire population of the city functioning smoothly. Beside him his second in command, Ambrosius, was seated. Arms crossed over his chest, blue eyes half shut, with his chair tipped back on two legs against the wall Ambrosius looked almost asleep. He was anything but; he was the only one accompanying the Master of London tonight and therefore his Lord's safety was his responsibility. Not that Lord Hadrian couldn't take care of himself, if he couldn't Ambrosius might have killed and replaced him long ago, but it was Ambrosius' job to attack anything that threatened his master. If he died, then Lord Hadrian would be on his own.

The massive redwood doors opened and Nvara Aelfly entered, shutting them silently behind her. None of the arguing bunch noticed her entrance. Which they weren't meant too; she had cast an illusion on the doors before entering to prevent that. Glancing around the Headmistress of Akren, the most influential school of magic in existence, noted the chaos and picked out those not involved. Making her way around the room she found Minister Stocklir seated next to Hadrian and talking quietly with Vaire, the guardian of the most powerful centaur herd.

"Good evening Nvara, nice of you to join our…party." Vaire commented as Nvara conjured a chair next to the group. The massive gold and blonde centaur was lying on a thin cushion large enough for his horse's body. His head still came up to the shoulders of the rest of the group.

"Greetings to you Vaire and blessings on your herd," Nvara said with a short nod. "Evening to you Lord Hadrian, Minister Stocklir." Hadrian blinked and glanced up from his work long enough to nod, check to see if the squabbling crowd had changed at all, and, finding that they hadn't thought of anything new yet, went back to his work.

"Evening Nvara. How is Akren?"

"Surprisingly calm now that our more violently inclined students are taking out their aggressions on the demons. We haven't even had a lethal lover's spat amongst the students since the war started." Nvara said cheerfully, referencing one of the most common causes of homicide at Akren.

Ambrosius snickered, and had to give his master an innocent look when Hadrian's eyes flashed over to him. Hadrian was defensive about his alma mater, being one of its first students he had some reason to be.

"I hope you've come with a few fresh ideas because right now…" Vaire trailed off, watching the arguing mess sadly.

"I may have a solution in mind." Nvara smiled, "there is, after all, only one group who have not yet fought in this war and whose people are, for now, safe."

"The Chachapoyaro?" Hadrian asked immediately, looking up from his paper work.

"The Chachapoyaro." Nvara confirmed, "they've been busy getting their population up to speed on what the rest of the world is like and what's going on. They're safe – the demons don't even know they exist! They're secured behind their magical barriers and while they've been training nonstop they have not yet fought anywhere. The guards of their homeland are ready for anything and I'm getting the impression that the Xariath warriors, now that they've fully recovered from their time in hibernation, are eager for battle. We don't need them quite yet. Our own forces will likely need a breather in another week, assuming the demons continue attacking at this pace, but until then we don't need the Xariath for much. Why not ask them to form a team to go and find out what's going on in the new world?"

"Nvara have I told you recently how brilliant you are?" Stocklir asked. The old woman hopped up from her chair and pushed her wait through to the center table, where she at once raised her wand and conjured a string of firecrackers.

When everyone could see again and their ears stopped ringing Stocklir shooed them all back to their seats and presented Nvara's idea – the Akren headmistress having left during the commotion to summon the Xariath Generals herself.

XX

I envy you. I can't wait to see this new world. Rahkesh thought hard, focusing intensely on Nicodemus. Their mental connection was wobbly at best right now, given the distance and lack of practice.

He felt a response somewhere, but couldn't read the thought. Annoyed Rahkesh tried again, and again, having difficulty forcing his mental shields to stop over reacting. This wasn't some unknown beings attacking his mind, he really had no reason to react this way except blind instinct. Finally he slowly lowered his mental shields, noting as he did that he had almost worked himself into a panic. He needed to practice this more often.

You need to practice that.

I know. What did you say?

It's a pity you can't come with us, this magical world was your idea.

I didn't have anything to do with the actual work.

Neither did we really.

No, but I would rather be fighting anyway. A pause as Rahkesh flipped a page in the newspaper sitting on his desk. Things have gotten pretty bad.

How bad?

Bad enough that the Amadan fae have already killed off all of their own children. And the werewolves are arguing over whether or not to do the same. The Vascari and Okata are struggling with the same choice. Their children give off more accidental magic than most other species. But it won't be long until everyone has to make that decision.

Unpleasant, but that is war. Nicodemus pointed out. He was as coldly logical as the vampires sometimes.

It still feels wrong somehow. Rahkesh sighed.

Murder usually does. Murder of innocent children…obviously that is wrong. Just as obviously there is no other option. Not unless we can get everyone into the new world very soon.

I know. There is a lot of debate going on amongst humans as to whether or not to consider it a crime to kill those too young to stop their magic from giving their location away. Most humans are outraged at the idea and don't want to hear any justification. It is something the politicians are struggling with. It goes against every moral rule and every law, but I don't see any other way.

I suspect most will hold out as long as possible, hoping for the new world to be ready.

They should! But when it does come time to decide. What do we do? If too many die fighting to save the children, the children get enslaved anyway and now the demons grow stronger. The shelters haven't got room for all the human children, even if it was just us, never mind all the other species. But to kill the children the adults can continue to hide long enough that some will survive and get into the new world, where they can rebuild and continue the fight. It's the only solution, but that doesn't mean it isn't murder.

We'll just have to go find that magical world then and start moving people in.

As quickly as you can.

Of course. Try to make sure there is someone left when we get back. Nic said. Rahkesh smirked a little and let a tiny bit of his thunderbird animagus across.

We're far from finished, and if all else fails the shelters are all good for at least five years.

We leave in four hours, I will let you know when we return.

Good luck, and stay safe, we have no idea what's in that place. Rahkesh said with a telepathic hug. Nic's telepathic presence faded. Rahkesh closed the newspaper detailing the ongoing arguments about what to do with children too young to conceal their magical presence. It was depressing. He hated feeling helpless like this. Glancing down at the potion on the stone side table he saw that it was just starting to turn color and picked up his silver ladle to begin stirring again.

"How was your day?" Daray asked over Rahkesh's shoulder. Rahkesh hissed a few parseltongue curses at him and the vampire backed away, hands up, a tiny grin playing around his lips at hearing the parseltongue. That was always a sure sign that Rahkesh was startled and ticked off.

"The day I find out how you keep getting in here I will set a very, very nasty trap. And feed your roasted remains to a wyvern colony." Rahkesh told him, waving the long handled silver ladle at the vampire's nose. Daray's eyes crossed as he watched the potion coated instrument move back and forth.

"You can't really roast a vampire." The Ateres youngest stated as though pointing out the blatantly obvious.

"I can try."

"What is that?" Daray changed the subject with his usual lack of subtlety. Rahkesh dropped the ladle into the iron cauldron on his table and glared. "What?"

"A shrinking solution. One that will be all over you the next time you sneak up on me."

"A shrinking solution?" Daray asked as though he had not heard the threat. He had, he just didn't care. Yet. He might when that shrinking solution wound up all over his freshly cleaned laundry.

"It shrinks things." Rahkesh drawled slowly.

"I would assume so." Daray replied in the same tone. "Why?"

"For use on pesky vampires."

"Ah. How is Sean?" Daray purred as he leaned against the wall, looking delighted.

"Hurting, I would imagine." Rather a lot actually. Severe flesh-melting burns in the armpits would last a while.

"And?" Daray asked, one eyebrow rising. Rahkesh scowled, he knew from Silas that Daray had used potions to alter his facial muscles to be able to do that.

"I am sure it is painful."

"And?"

"He'll be in pain for a few days." Rahkesh fought to keep from smiling. Baiting Daray was fun.

Daray sighed and crossed his arms as he dropped, uninvited, onto Rahkesh's couch. Naturally, his favorite perch was already occupied by Satan, who Rahkesh hadn't noticed before. The bat moved aside and jumped onto Daray's shoulder. "Thank you Rahkesh, I got that part. I'll explain the question a bit better for your human ears; what did you do to him? What did you get for winning after he attacked you?"

"Flesh melting curses, his blood, a knife, and an earring." Rahkesh said, not moving enough to even blink.

"What on earth has you so pissy?"

"You appearing from thin air and sneaking up on me."

Daray picked at imaginary lint on his shoulder, "I am brilliant at that sort of thing," he admitted with a drawn out sigh. Daray's black eyes were glittering at him and Rahkesh suspected the vampire was trying very hard to not break out laughing.

"Will you continue to be as smug when this shrinking solution winds up in your toothpaste?" Rahkesh queried as innocently as he could while grinning diabolically.

"You would not." Daray said with no concern at all, "all of my lovely lady friends would be ever so upset at the lack of fangs…and you don't want them all angry at you, do you?"

"Daray you've had fangs your whole life, who knows, you might like not having them." Rahkesh snickered at the way Daray's eyes narrowed and his lip curled in disgust.

"Not to mention you might finally have some luck with our resident lion fae, all of them." Ally added as she stepped into the room from the balcony in a swirl of blond hair.

Rahkesh rolled his eyes heavenwards.

"Does no one around here understand that doors are used for entering rooms and as things to be knocked upon to announce one's entrance?" He asked, uselessly of course. Half the time Akren students just used windows or some sort of magical transport.

"Doors? What are these doors he speaks of?" Daray queried at Ally. "He can't mean that wooden thing that has so many vicious enchantments that it tries to bite me every time I walk past? He can't possibly mean that. If that is what we are supposed to use should it not then be free of enchantment? If only so that we are not forced to find alternate means of entrance?"

"The door bites you?" Ally asked, ignoring the rest of it.

"It has teeth." Daray pointed.

Ally and Rahkesh looked, at perfectly plain, ordinary door made of heavy solid wooden planks stuck together with wooden nails.

"Teeth?" Rahkesh asked. He had never put such an enchantment on his door. His invisibility cloak on the other hand…

"On the knob."

Rahkesh got up and went to his door, Ally leaned over and poked at the door knob.

Nothing.

"Uh…Daray?"

"See? It has teeth!" Daray said, pointing again. Ally and Rahkesh slowly exchanged looks. Ally backed away, giving the plain wooden door a suspicious look. Rahkesh carefully placed one hand on either side of the door and closed his eyes, searching out his own magics…and then another's.

"Daray…I think you and Silas may need to have a talk."

"Silas…oh he didn't." Daray hissed furiously.

"I'm afraid so, it's only keyed to you." Rahkesh said.

"Excuse me. Cousin dearest and I need to chat." Daray said, stalking out of the room with Satan on his shoulder. Behind him Ally and Rahkesh blinked at each other and shrugged.

"Didn't Silas just redo the enchantments on his own door?" Ally asked, "and hasn't Daray been very careful about not touching them?"

"Yes…but if he's angry…" Rahkesh trailed off. Ally stayed silent, turning to listen in the hallway.

Daray's shriek made them both wince and slam the door shut, hands over their ears.

"Welcome back to Akren. How was the wyvern colony?" Ally grinned, rubbing her ears.

"Everything went fine." Rahkesh said, turning back to his potion. "The wyverns will be with us in the next fight. They are very, very, angry. We still don't know why the demons were attacking them, since they didn't take any prisoners. But whatever the reason the wyverns are ready to fight. I suspect they will be very formidable. They are extremely agile in the air and being able to spit poison or sticky acid ought to surprise the demons. They'll probably only be sent to fight around their colonies, but that does offer some help to what's left of Europe."

"Excellent. Haedil just returned as well. He was with a bunch of alumni gathering griffins and other magical animals. There is quite a menagerie living in Mount Hydra. They've got just about everything capable of fighting. Except dragons. Those are being assembled at several other locations. And chimeras, those are off elsewhere too." Ally explained. "I've been off enchanting gargoyles all day. Half the alumni are out fighting right now, and the Headmistress made an announcement earlier that classes are all still being held and we will be spending most our time learning, not fighting."

"Did she really say that?"

"Yes. Apparently someone thought that we should all be on a permanent rotation and Nvara got pissed off about it. She claims it serves Earth better to have the next generation training rather than fighting."

"Probably true, we had a lot of casualties the first day." Too many, in the first twenty-four hours Akren had lost eight students. Of the Alumni only one was actually dead, though seven were seriously injured and had initially been counted as dead, causing a minor panic.

"The next History of Sentient Magical Life lecture series starts tomorrow night. Professor Kurinan is holding it, care to go?" Ally asked.

"It's a requirement for graduation isn't it?"

"Yes, but we've got until our last year to take it." Ally reminded him. Rahkesh nodded, thinking that he didn't actually know when his last year of schooling was going to be. Students were accepted as young as fifteen, and schooling ended at twenty-one. But Rahkesh had spent a year tossed back in time a thousand years. Never mind that time in the Room of Requirement that had been so essential to preparing him for Akren. He had entered after his sixth year at Hogwarts, at the age of seventeen. He should have had four years at Akren, but he didn't know if his time in the Room of Requirement and back in time with the Chachapoyaro had changed things. He had never thought to discuss it with the Headmistress…he should have and he would have to soon.

"I'll go, who else is coming?"

"The usual suspects, our darling little fanged Ateres, plus Rianae, Justin, Tyler, Haedil, and Hanashi. Oh and Matolo, his new alpha Liam Rusvar, the three Crowlack siblings, Tabor Welden, and Valerie. None of the werewolves from Halax's pack will be there because they're in a fight with Liam's pack over changing room assignments and some such stuff."

"How did you know all that?" Rahkesh asked, since when had Ally been the school gossip?

Ally gave him a pitying look, "there's a sign up sheet on the wall outside Professor Kurinan's office. I signed you up with the rest of us, there're only thirty seats in Kurinan's favorite lecture hall. And the werewolves were just getting into a fight when I left."

"Oh, thanks. Is Professor Kurinan the really old dryad with the pale green skin and the mangled left ear because he got in a fight with a whole pride of lion fae when he was a student here?"

"Yes, that's him. And he only teaches in stone lecture halls because he doesn't approve of using trees for building. Everything in that room is stone. Why they couldn't get plastic seats I have no idea, the stone is cold."

"Plastic can melt under a magical discharge." Rahkesh reminded her, plastic was rare in Akren, or in any part of the magical world, for several reasons, but the ease with which magic melted it was one of the main ones.

"Right, smells really bad. The lecture is at eight tomorrow night. But you necromancy students might be called off to a meeting before then."

"What for?" Rahkesh asked, he'd heard of nothing.

"Not sure…just some interesting stuff that happened while you were away today."

And suddenly Ally's eyes were crinkled at the edges and sparkling with mirth. Rahkesh eyed her warily, happy laughing Ally meant something crazy had happened.

"Interesting how?" Rahkesh asked cautiously.

"The necromancers spent the day out on Falx Field raising a dead army."

Falx Field was a massive expanse off the far end of the Akren mountains. About fifty square kilometers, most of it covered in white falx, a short magical plant appearing to be a cross between grass and fern that was actually gray but turned white in midwinter. Nothing ate white falx, or lived anywhere that had a lot of it, but it could be used to connect and hold on to death magic. Which was probably why most animals and even other plants avoided it. Rahkesh had never been to Falx Field, but he understood it was a location created some time ago by a few bloodmagic and necromancy students as a location for the school to stage massive rituals to raise the dead.

"I'm sorry I missed that." Rahkesh was still waiting for whatever was so amusing about this.

"Have you ever raised the dead?"

"No."

"Then don't be sorry. I went to watch and it…well it wasn't exactly what one would expect. In fact it went horribly wrong."

Rahkesh paused over his potion. Necromancy gone horrible wrong was not a good thing. He glanced over at Ally and was not surprised to find her bright eyes dancing with amusement and thoroughly wicked grin on her face.

"What happened?"

"There were some more advanced necromancy students out there today. Professor Namach decided they were probably about ready to try raising recently slain corpses. They used muggles, I don't know where the bodies came from. It didn't go well."

Rahkesh quirked an eyebrow at Ally, she was drawing this out intentionally. "That sounds ominous."

Ally's grin broadened.

"Namach must have overestimated them. The student's happy little zombies got a little too happy and ate each other." Ally's grin just about reached her ears. "Really, they ate each other and we wound up with a pile of zombies gnawing on each others' limbs in the middle of the field. The actual necromancers were laughing so hard they couldn't stand and the saber tooth tigers they were raising got loose. There were thirty of them, rotting flesh and all, running around pouncing on everything in sight. Thank goodness the containment magics held. Namach was just went and told the necromancers to get out and made the students try to fix everything. Most of them are just about unconscious from exhaustion. The necromancers will be working all night but I think the students will have a few more classes before Namach tries that again."

"Oh, now I really wish I had been here for that." Rahkesh sighed, grinning at the mental image. He also really wished he was far enough along to start raising the dead. That was maybe a year away, even at his advanced pace of study.

"You'll be starting soon, I think Namach is hoping to pick out the most advanced students and move them along as quickly as possible."

"Thanks for the warning." Rahkesh sighed. Well, for once he wasn't overcome with too much to do. With Voldemort gone a whole section of his worries had evaporated. Now with his hand fixed he only had school work, fighting the demons, and whatever odd transformation he might go through that might somehow make the elves want to kill him. Really it didn't seem like so much…apart from the part about him being terrified of the demons winning this war before the new world was ready.

"I'm sure it'll be fun." Ally said, "how about raising a deceased thunderbird?" Rahkesh looked up from his potion again to stare at her incredulously. "Just for fun?"

"You're out of your mind." Rahkesh stated, "but I already knew that. No. I am not raising a thunderbird…it wouldn't matter if I wanted to since they're not…well they're not like other creatures."

"They're alive aren't they?" Ally asked.

"Sort of?" Rahkesh didn't really know how to explain this since he wasn't so sure himself. "They're created from storms. Their souls just sort of materialize and become part of the storm, they die when the storm does. Unless they become powerful enough to instead switch to a solid bird form. Then they can fly away when the storm dies and try to find a new storm. If they can't find one quick enough they either die, or generate their own. Those are the really problematic ones. They generate a storm by burning up their own energy, and in doing so they lose their solid body. If the storm doesn't become self-sustaining for a while then the thunderbird dies. If they've judged the conditions right and generated their storm in the right place then they gain energy and can survive until that storm dies, at which point they either die or move on again depending upon how much energy they have."

"How does a soul just materialize?" Ally asked curiously.

"I've been asking every professor who might know. Namach knows, so does Xanthius, I think Vaeryes does, and none of them will tell me. Apparently it has to do with what happens to souls after death, and we don't get to know that secret until-"

"-half way through our second year. Yes, I know. It drives me crazy." Ally complained. "You'd think the whole world would want to know and the knowledge would get out somehow."

"It has." Rahkesh pointed out. Everyone knew a little bit about what happened to your soul after you died, he'd even been able to read up on that back home in London. Hogwarts had even had a book on it in the Room of Requirement.

"But not the details. The only people who get to know that are Akren alumni and the Necromancers Guild, and we have to swear a magically binding oath not to tell anyone, and we're not even allowed to do that until two months from now." Ally complained with a sigh.

"Anyhow, I don't think it would be possible to summon a thunderbird's soul." Rahkesh said, "since it would need some sort of backwards magical/electrical magic."

"Which you can produce." Ally reminded him.

"If I want to die."

"Hmm, that would be rather sad I guess." Ally mused, grinning.

"I'm not trying it just because you think it would be entertaining."

"That's okay, I'm sure Professor Namach will have you give it a try someday. Just remember to invite me." Ally chuckled at Rahkesh's sour look. Being a guinea pig for the most powerful creature on earth was not a roll Rahkesh would ever have chosen willingly, but it was one he occasionally had to endure just because there wasn't any other option. That his own magic usually improved from being agreeable to trying bizarre new things was an added benefit, but not one he counted on.

There was another person he could have asked, Professor Janamaski taught bloodmagic, soul magic, and necromancy classes, usually when Namach was busy looking after the vampires and unavailable. But she was in the middle of a five-year trip to Australia that had been extended into readying the local Bloodmages and necromancers for battle. And Rahkesh doubted she'd have told him anyway.

XX

Rahkesh drew the knife up over his right shoulder, down to the center of his chest, and pressed in just enough to draw a few drops of blood. The tiny scratch over his shoulder and chest barely hurt; it hadn't gone deep enough to bleed at all. The mirror hovering in front of him, held in place wandlessly, showed a very faint pinkish line with two lightning bloody bolts drawn through it. There was another identical line coming over his other shoulder. Rahkesh connected the two at the center of his chest then caught the blood drop on the point of his knife and dragged it in a small circle right in the center of his chest. From the bottom of that he drew more fine scratches downwards in a braid that separated above his belly button. He wound one scratch over each hip while the third looped in another circle. Connecting the scratches to others already on his hips he lifted the knife and neatly scratched three runes onto each cheek.

He could feel the magic being pulled over the designs drawn all over him, could feel the magic wrapping into the scratches and could feel it finding his purpose, his intention, and solidifying into it. Rahkesh lowered the blade, leaving it across his legs. He was seated cross-legged on the floor.

Lifting the runes off the floor using only the magic and blood flowing from him, through the runes, and back, he wrapped it around himself, and broke it. The result was a bloody rain that Rahkesh swirled and held suspended. Not wandlessly, but with the magic in his blood. Eventually the droplets scattered, shattered, and spread until he was inside a cloud of solid red. Rahkesh focused and the blood snapped inwards, coating him from head to toe. Finishing with his eyes closed to avoid getting them filled with blood Rahkesh pulled the blood back into the scratches.

A few minutes later he closed the door to the chamber and pressed his hand to the palm print on the wall. Hearing the cleaning enchantments go to work he turned away and cleaned his knife in the basin he had left out before placing the knife back in its plain deer hide sheath.

"Perfectly done," Namach said from beside him. Rahkesh hadn't heard the door open, but his ears were full of the little bit of blood he hadn't managed to get back in via the scratches. He cast a cleaning charm, not bothered about standing around nude in front of the vampire. Doing bloodmagic in rooms with windows meant getting used to that fast. Akren students didn't bother with modesty much, as evidenced by the frequent complete lack of attire at the hot springs. "Perhaps not so perfect, but you got most of it." Namach amended when he saw that Rahkesh had still had blood in his ears.

"I always leave blood in my ears." Rahkesh complained. Namach had yet to miss any of his rituals so he was not surprised to see him there. The ancient vampire was dressed simply in heavy black pants and a dark red top with a black jacket over it. Bloodmetal was in evidence everywhere and bloodmagic runes ran all over the outside of his jacket in bright red runes. His black hair was unusually long and hanging loose, black leather arm guards covered his forearms, coated in bloodmetal.

Rahkesh was a little surprised that the vampire warlord wasn't dressed for battle, but perhaps the arch demons were taking the day off. Rahkesh tilted his head to the said and growled impatiently as he tried to get flakes of dried blood out from behind his ears. Namach grinned, fangs showing just a little. Odd. Normally vampires kept their fangs retracted and looked like they just had normal teeth. Namach just left his fangs as they were far more often than most, but it was still odd to see them.

"Make sure you clean it out before leaving. Your blood smells far too delectable for most of the vampires around here to resist." The ancient vampire advised, eyes glittering as he sniffed the air softly. "Far too delectable, have you been getting attacked more often lately?"

"Twice in the last week." Rahkesh said, Sean had been one, the other hadn't even been a fight. Rahkesh had thrown him out a window with a simple banishing spell. Funny how so many people forgot those worked even if you used a shield you still got banished, along with the shield.

"I'm not surprised. I've rarely smelled blood so fine as yours." Namach said with a sigh before turning and taking Rahkesh's robe off the hanger, handing it to him the vampire watched, eyes glittering with a bit of a glow, as he put it on. "I suggest you put some scent blocking enchantments on that robe, something permanent that will not irritate your skin after a rough ritual."

Rahkesh tossed the robe on, grabbed his wand and used a strong scent concealing spell. That would have to do for the moment. "Thanks for the warning."

"There were…are…ten students watching that ritual. I think they were hoping for another display such as the times you use lightning. Eight of them are vampires and while I trust our Ateres sons to not be so foolish as to attack you the others may. Having you walking around smelling strongly enough to make a vampire's eyes roll while wearing only a robe seemed a recipe for disaster." Namach said, he frowned at Rahkesh, "perhaps something a little stronger" he cast a ward to hide Rahkesh's smell with a flicker of his fingers. "Much better."

"The smell of my blood bothers you too?" Rahkesh asked curiously. He had thought Namach beyond that sort of thing.

Namach turned around and caught him with a glowing silvery-eyed look that made the hairs on Rahkesh's neck stand on end…and then the hairs all the way down his back and arms did the same. That look was entirely predatory, and disturbingly hungry. Involuntarily he took two steps back, eyeing the vampire warily

Dark magic swirled around like a suffocating heavy cloak and Namach's fangs showed in another grin, his eyes sparkling darkly. Rahkesh's skin broke out in goose bumps and went cold, and he wanted to back up again but there was a wall behind him.

"Bothers? No…" Namach drawled, a tiny smile curling his lips. "Bothersome is the smell of a zombies blood. No Rahkesh, your blood is one of the most…enticing…things I have ever scented." His nostrils flared a moment and Rahkesh managed, barely, to not grimace. "With great power and age comes a far stronger sense of smell…and fortunately for you a far stronger sense of self control and self preservation." Namach left the room abruptly, leaving the door open.

Rahkesh lifted Sygra from her spot on the bench and wrapped her around his shoulders and neck, his familiar's presence suddenly very comforting. He had only rarely wondered just how close Namach sometimes came to attempting to drink his blood. The ancient usually kept that part of his nature…not concealed, but not quite so…overpoweringly intense. He didn't usually bother to remind anyone so obviously that they were all just potential prey to him.

Not that Rahkesh could ever forget that Namach was a vampire, not when he carefully watched his body language around the ancient and usually avoided anything verbal or physical that could be challenging, occasionally rude or annoying, yes, but not challenging. He rarely saw Namach get that predatory, and that was when fighting demons, not when hunting humans. Or maybe when dealing with another vampire, not focused on Rahkesh. Rahkesh didn't particularly like being leered at like potential prey, with all that overwhelming dark magic crushing in on him, making him feel like he couldn't breathe or move or think. It was frightening in a way that made him freeze up and his mind turn off, especially terrifying since he didn't have a snowball's chance in hell of stopping Namach. Next time he just wouldn't ask.

Namach was talking with Daray outside when Rahkesh exited, carrying Sygra, his knife, and the bowl with the cleaning potion in it. The ancient was back to being his normal self, which, Rahkesh noted, really was very much a very powerful vampire. Funny how close association with him had made Rahkesh stop noticing so much. He wouldn't do that again.

"Meet me in dueling chamber D5 in three hours." Namach said, looking around at Rahkesh, "that piece went well enough that you should be able to test it today." Rahkesh couldn't help grinning.

"Great…uh…this isn't going to involve any of the loose zombies running around is it?" He asked a little hesitantly. He had just finished his first piece of offensive bloodmagic and the zombies…

"Yes, I'm bringing the ones that are still around. Most of them didn't have enough magic, or weren't well enough done, to stay around for more than an hour. But there are six left. They will be excellent for practicing." Namach said, smiling cheerfully. Rahkesh groaned and Namach's grin got wider. "I'm sure you can handle testing this on a bunch of zombies, I promise I won't let them eat you."

Rahkesh snorted at that and shook his head. "No, but this might be a good time to test the shielding ritual I did Wednesday. Five days…I feel great and I've only tested that shield with simple charms. Would a zombie bite be too ambitious?"

Namach thought about it a few moments, "no I suppose not. But before you let any of them starting trying to eat you I would like to test a few light charms on it to gauge the reaction."

Rahkesh sighed and nodded, wondering if that would hurt very much. As he walked away it occurred to him that this was in fact not the actual Tristan Namach. He was off fighting the demon's still-on-going attack. Or it was him, but not really, since it was a golem…though with Namach it was almost impossible to tell the difference.

XX

"With that last accidental mixing there was a total population of eighty Okapi fae." Professor Kurinan told the class. Most of them were just listening while enchanted quills took notes. This wasn't a normal class; it was required for graduation because the final exams the last year of Akren included a quiz on how all the various sentient magical life forms came to be as they were. Everyone could look over the notes then, though really it was remarkably straightforward.

Professor Kurinan was going over the animal fae, which were descended from fae who had moved their minds into the minds of animals after their bodies had been killed. Not terribly unlike what had happened with Sharahak when he had become a demon. In the case of the fae large populations killed at the same time by war, plague, or natural disaster had moved into the bodies of the nearest animals with the best mental capacity. The result a few thousand years later was population of fae who were just as much animal as fae, with all the instincts of the animals whose bodies they had taken, but with the added ability to turn back into hominid life forms when they wished.

Of course, Professor Kurinan wouldn't be able to tell them about the species Rahkesh actually wanted to learn about; the elves and the Vashora. Very little was known about either and those who knew more (Namach) weren't telling.

"Onto the Vascari. Of all the fae species they are perhaps the most unique, having an exoskeleton which covers the entire body as well as an inner skeleton. While the outer layer is called an exoskeleton I should tell you that it is actually more of-"

Shrieking alarms going off on the arm guards of half the class cut Professor Kurinan off mid-sentence.

"Go on." Kurinan said quickly as the students got up and left.

Picking up his weapons and changing quickly into armor in his rooms Rahkesh spun a circular section of metal on one of his armguards. At once a blip of magic leaped off of it giving him a location and an image. Picking up Sygra and a few extra potions he headed for the doors, pausing only to wait for his friends in the hallway outside their rooms.

"Kenya," Daray said, turning to wait as Ally and Rianae appeared.

"Nice of them to send us all out together," Ally said, tying back her hair. Four long blades were strapped to her back, straps around and across her shoulders held two perfectly muggle looking guns, which were enchanted and carrying the latest version of magical bullets designed for demons.

"Since when were there enough magical humans in Kenya to bother with?" Rianae asked.

"More likely they're onto the next stage and this is an attempt to bring in as many demons as possible." Rahkesh thought.

"Yes, this force will contain warriors to attack us and many smaller groups of demons tasked with hunting down humans to bring back to the demon realm. We'll have to remember to go after any demons seen fleeing the battlefield." Justin agreed. "Ready?"

"Ready."

XX

Rahkesh apparated into chaos.

Demons were everywhere, magic was flying, the air smelled singed, humans, werewolves, veela, vampires, goblins, tiny blips of magic as fairies spun around ripping eyes out. Rahkesh ducked some flying debris and bounced a demon's decapitated head off a shield spell. Chaos, complete chaos.

He picked out a rock pile to put his back against and moved forward, hurling curses at every demon in sight, careful to mark the spells so they would turn aside from Earthlings.

Beside him Haedil was tearing through another wave of demons, the Amadan's magic lighting up the air where his spells splintered off the demon's shields. Past him three vampires were moving as a unit, one going high and making his spells drop down from above, the second going for the ground then bringing the spells up beneath the demons, the third holding a shield and going straight for the demon's faces.

Rahkesh rolled under a leaping demon and drove a knife up into its belly just behind the ribs. The thread magic on the leather grip sparked and the blade slid in deep. He twisted the blade and pulled it out. Kicking the demon aside Rahkesh began casting spells, spinning his wand in rapid movements around head height and directing the spells towards their targets by thought.

Massive blasts and flying pieces of demons signaled Ally's arrival. Hurling demons aside and conjuring water directly into their lungs while simultaneously using a highly illegal curse to pull their bowels out Ally cleared a path to where Daray and six other vampires were covering Silas as he picked out a demon and began to hypnotize it. Beside him Nuri was focused on a second demon. Ally placed her back to Silas and started throwing pain curses at demons. In half a minute she had the group surrounded by writhing screaming demons, easy targets.

Dodging demonic magic Rahkesh picked his way through the fight. There had been a forest here once; the burned stumps and shattered trees were everywhere. Now it had all been burned into a crusty ash.

A blaze of demon magic and a body smashed into Rahkesh. He hit the ground hard and rolled fast, creating a shield and throwing six tendon-liquefying curses. The attacking demons swung away, screaming. Rahkesh turned and found himself looking into the eyes of a young woman in his year; he had met her at the entrance to Akren on the first day.

Blood was pumping out of her throat as though from a fountain. Rahkesh pressed his palm over the gash and blood spurted out between his fingers. He focused on ignoring the warm liquid washing everywhere and began attempting a healing spell.

A roaring demon dropped out of the air, a massive metal spear aimed for Rahkesh's head. Rahkesh drew a taser and detached a shrunken axe from the row of miniature weapons attached to his belt like pins. Enlarging the weapon he brought ti up as the demon swung to the left to avoid the taser. The enchanted axe, a project of the metal magic students, sliced through the demon's skull like it was butter.

Turning back to the dying woman next to him Rahkesh once again began to work on her throat while trying to detach the curse that held her immobile.

From above three demons closed their wings and fell towards him, spitting venom and fire before them. Rahkesh was again forced back from his injured companion as he flicked his knife over a few runes and his bloodmagic sprang to life. All across his body a pale blue glow appeared and some of his bloodmagic runes appeared, faint golden lines swirling over him. This was his first defensive bloodmagic; a simple shield. The venom and fire washed off just millimeters above his skin. The heat hurt, but the shield magic had worked.

Rahkesh moved again to begin healing the injured woman's throat…but her eyes had gone glassy and cold. Pausing, for a moment not comprehending, Rahkesh realized she was dead. Her ripped throat gaped open, most of her blood pooled below her and sprayed across the ground around them, and all across Rahkesh. Rahkesh shook himself, double checked to make sure she was in fact dead, then stood and turned his new wand on the attacking demons.

Since his friends seemed to have formed a fighting unit around Silas and were doing fine Rahkesh turned and fought his way to the edge of what remained of the forest. Burned blackened trunks of twisted trees coated in hanging smoke. Out here Rahkesh turned back towards the main fight, killing another demon by driving chunks of rocks through its eyes and into its brain. Spotting a dozen demons flying away he turned and began hurling lightning bolts at them, forcing them to dodge back and closer to him. Pulling out his broom Rahkesh took to the air.

His thunderbird form would be of little use here; he would wind up making things as difficult for his own side as for the demons. The demons were not tight groups and there was only so much area he could really cover. He needed a big packed army of ranks of demons to be truly effective, this mess was better met as a human.

Pulling out his bloodmagic knife Rahkesh lightly scratched a few runes on his cheek. His latest bloodmagic, the very first offensive bloodmagic he had done, lit up and he felt the magic surge. Reach out with one hand Rahkesh called upon his newest bloodmagic and felt the air respond. Opening his palm he pushed the air he now controlled out around a demon, then made a fist. The demon screamed in agony as its wings snapped. Rahkesh could hear shattering bones and the demon fell out of the air.

He caught another demon the same way before the remaining ten figured it out and began moving too quickly to catch. He had chosen to do this bit of bloodmagic as his first offensive magic specifically for battle with flying demons. However, as he had only done the first piece of a ten piece set he couldn't move the air very quickly, nor long distance, nor in difficult weather conditions. The fast dodging demons were spinning through the air too quickly. Rahkesh bent low on his broom and went after them. Now high over most of the fight and speeding further away he felt safe unleashing wave after wave of lightning after the demons. They dodged that too, only to be caught in the curses Rahkesh sent behind the lightning bolts.

Dropping the last dead demon of the unit he had been hunting Rahkesh spun and glanced up at the skies, looking for another pack fleeing the fight. Any demons leaving were likely searching out the nearest magical settlements to capture whoever happened to be left. It was essential that the demons not gain any prisoners, not just for the good of the unfortunate beings captured, but also for those still fighting.

XX

The last demon went down under Ally's flashing fire whips, sliced to ribbons and with blue smoking magic pouring from its ruined eye sockets. Ally decapitated it and another fighter quickly snatched up its weapons in a bundle of thread magic, before they could vaporize.

That was a new trick; the demon's weapons all turned to ash and vapor as the demon died, leaving nothing behind. It would make using their own magic against them difficult. But thread magic had advanced a lot in the last thousand years, and the demons had apparently not caught on. Cloth in which every weave and stitch was filled with magic could hold the weapons, if created correctly. Fortunately for Earth the Akren Headmistress Nvara Aelfly and anticipated difficulties in handling the demon's weapons and had gotten the threadmages started on creating large sheets of enchanted cloth three weeks previously.

Rahkesh was coated in blood, reeked of death, and felt like his legs were made of lead. Every muscle ached and his joints protested as he cleaned and put away his knives, tasers, sword, axes, and his two enchanted handguns. He had not shifted into either animagus form this time – the battle had been too spread out over the charred forest. Lightning was ineffective against a dispersed enemy and the chaotic wind and rain just as hard for his own side as on their opponents. He needed demons clumped in a massive army to be truly destructive. Here they had abandoned their strict ranks and attacked on their own. Sixty thousand or so of them, but none tightly packed. Perhaps they were learning. Perhaps not, he had picked off forty or so flying beta demons with lightning bolts from the ground.

One of the demon sorcerers was still glowing, even after it had died. Sparks were flying everywhere as another sorcerer slowly turned into a little heap of grayish liquid. Rahkesh wondered what spell that had been; whatever it was had taken out an armored alpha sorcerer with remarkable effectiveness.

"No arch demons. I wonder where they are?" Daray asked no one in particular as he limped around the corpse of another sorcerer, an adult alpha demon that he had slain in a nasty ten minute duel. This portal must have been a very powerful one.

"No idea. I suggest you ask our resident Ice Dragon." Rahkesh chuckled. Namach was having fun with the arch demon armies, even if they usually tore him up badly.

Silas was surrounded by four of the other Ateres vampires. They had all returned to being vampires, the dark angel animagus closed away for the moment. Rahkesh recognized Grath and Sierra, but none of the others. Sierra was removing the armor from dead demons and packaging it before it disintegrated. Grath had an arm around Silas's shoulders, Silas leaning on him heavily and looking exhausted. The remaining two were locking up eleven demons in threadmagic and metal magic enchanted chains.

"How'd it go?" Rahkesh asked Silas as he limped over to them. His left foot hurt from having a demon tail spike driven through it. All of his best healing magics were still working on fixing that, and the scars on his right hand ached terribly.

"Pretty good." Silas said, "I'm getting faster…though I feel like I'm missing all the fighting because I'm too busy capturing demons. I'm not sure I like that…missing the battles."

"You're doing something far more important," Rahkesh assured him. He knew what Silas was talking about though. Silas had been turned into a vampire by the lesser outcasts of the Ateres family, and the search that had located him in a muggle orphanage had also located Daray. Cyala had taken Daray for her part of the family and turned Silas over to the less powerful outcasts. Silas himself had few truly extraordinary abilities. Daray was practically a bloodmagic savant, very skilled in wandless magic, an exemplary potions brewer, and very capable with large-scale difficult transfigurations. Never mind his current work independent-study in threadmagic and his alpha demon animagus. Silas had his remarkable animagus, and his ability to hypnotize. While he was ahead in most of his studies and doing very, very well, he was still no match for his cousin and never would be – and there was the reason why Cyala hadn't taken him for herself. All of this left Silas always just a little anxious to prove his capabilities.

"I have to agree with that. More information will give us a greater advantage than even a few thousand extra fighters would," Daray pointed out, poking one of the chained sleeping demons with his toe. Rahkesh thought Silas was likely way too hard on himself. He had captured and hypnotized several demons in their first battle too. And so far Silas was the only one aside from Tristan Namach who had succeeded in capturing a demon alive. And given that Namach was, well, Namach, he didn't count. True, there weren't many people even trying, but having eleven down and sleeping at his feet after maybe two or three hours was certainly a respectable accomplishment.

"About that, are any of the last batch talking yet?" Ally asked. Around them the others fighters were gathering the wounded and dead and removing them to tents the medical team had brought in just over the horizon.

"Oh yes," Sierra grinned, "Sharahak has been with them since the first battle ended. Namach isn't putting him into the fights anymore, Sharahak is more useful chatting with our captives. We have Saforin doing the interrogations, with Sabien helping. They're getting very good at it. Sabien likes to play mind games and trick them into talking while Saforin is an expert at torture."

Rahkesh bent down to examine one of the demons Silas had knocked out. A sudden telepathic nudge to his mind startled him enough to almost make him lose his balance.

"Rahkesh?" Ally asked.

"Just a sec," Rahkesh said, concentrating. A few seconds later he recognized Nicodemus.

Nic! You're back?

Just returned. Nic's telepathic voice sounded smugly amused.

The new magical world?

Thriving. Perfectly fine…except for one thing.

What? Rahkesh asked with sudden dread.

The barrier between the worlds, it's constantly fluctuating. We can't get back and forth across it but maybe once every other week. And we can't take but a few people with us. Maybe twenty at a time at most.

Twenty every two weeks! Rahkesh was horrified, at that rate…It'll take years to bring everyone across!

I know. I am reporting to the MLFC in two hours. I would like you to be there please. The original reconnaissance team has a way to allow everyone to sense the barrier. I would like your take on it, from your thunderbird's point of view.

I will be there. Rahkesh promised. Nic's presence faded and Rahkesh blinked a few times before turning to see everyone standing around him, waiting.

"Do you want the good news or the bad news first?"

**-****As I said I would include the first two chapters created by Miranda, the third chapter will be uploaded soon. **


	3. Chapter Three

"So the only people who will survive this war are the people in the shelters." Daray said.

" Well I look forward to fighting to the death with you guys." Ally stated grimly

" No, there has to be a way to fix the barrier. " Silas said staggering, trying to stand on his own again. "They found a way for everyone to sense it though? "

" Apparently. Nic wants me to be there when they announce it, he said he wants my take on the barrier from my Thunderbirds point of view. "

" Great, the only way in is to be electrocuted across. " Daray snickered. " sounds like more fun for you thunder. when is the MLFC meeting? "

" Two hours. " Rahkesh sighed. over fourteen thousand years and the barrier still isn't stable. Rahkesh couldn't help but wonder if something had gone wrong in creating the new world and how on Earth they could fix this without sending another team back in time. Rahkesh looked around at the wasteland that was the battlefield, the ground was blackened, everything burnt or charred to ash. Demon bodies and limbs lay everywhere, piles of ash and puddles of different unidentifiable ooze lay here here and there. There were tens of thousands of demons in this battle and it was only one of countless many going on around the world, this war had only just begun and already they had tens of thousands of warriors dead while the demons still had millions to throw at them. Not for the first time Rahkesh found himself missing the good old days when the only problem was Voldemort.

Back at Akren Rahkesh went to the healers wing to find Rianae, she had gotten knocked out pretty spectacularly. During the battle she got separated from everyone else and continually attacked by swarms of beta demons, Rahkesh and Daray had both tried to make their way over to help but kept getting attacked themselves, but given that a great many body parts kept flying out of the continuous attack and a lot of demons ran away screaming, she seemed to be able to hold her own. Rahkesh remembered one demon come running out ripping it's own face apart and pulling out it's brain. After the battle was over they found her unconscious with an axe imbedded in her side and sent her to the healers wing.

Rahkesh found her conscious but loopy with pain killers, Justin was sitting next to her laughing at something, he seemed fine but for the bandage covering most of his head. "You look like a pillow brought to life." Rianae was telling him " or like a marshmallow on a stick. " she snickered at him

" You look like you took on a hundred demons. " Rahkesh said walking up to her bed. She looked up at him and smiled smugly.

"I took on over seven hundred all by myself before one of those skinny bastards with no wings pulled my axe out of one of his friends and stuck me with it. " She sounded frustrated now "then I ripped off his arm and shoved it down his throat and popped his head like a water balloon." she laughed, maybe not quite so frustrated.

"The MLFC is meeting soon about the new world, the barrier is apparently fluctuating frequently and making it so that only small groups of maybe twenty can go across once every other week. I'm going to the meeting but I was wondering if you might have any theories on how to stabilize it?" Rahkesh asked her, though with the loopy look he got from her he wasn't sure she'd have any ideas.

"Threadmagic could work to attach it to a point but then that would be a weak spot where the demons would attack and that's only assuming not being anchored is the problem." she supplied, which Rahkesh already figured would be what she would say.

XX

The MLFC was just as crazy and chaotic as ever, with sorcerers and scholars running around everywhere and politicians screaming at each other. Rahkesh searched out his link with Nic

_Where are you? _he asked Nic

_In the gardens, it's a bit chaotic right now but Stocklir is about to start the meeting. _Rahkesh shut off the link and made his way to the massive airy hall with all the vibrant plants and trees and massive columns. Just as he walked in Stocklir sent off the fireworks she always does to get everyone's attention, Rahkesh didn't have time to prepare so he was blinded and def for a few seconds. When he could see again he made his way over to where the chachapoyaro were standing in their neat formations and clapped Nic on the back.

"There you are, I'm glad you're here." Nic told him.

" As you are all aware, we sent a reconnaissance team into the new world a while ago and they never came back." Stocklir stated in her soft yet authoratative voice. "We later decided to send another from the chachapoyaro, who not only came back but brought the first team back with them as well. They have come bearing good news and bad news, the good news is that the new Magical world is not only there but it is also thriving, the bad news is that the barrier between world's is fluctuating in a way that makes travel to and fro difficult and unpredictable. " at that everyone started yelling and arguing again, Rahkesh and Nic covered their ears just before Stocklir sent out another bout of firecrackers. "Now I know this is frustrating, but this is still our best chance at survival so we must come together and figure out how to stabilize it. At this point we cannot afford to send another team back in time so it must be done in real time, I will now turn the meeting over to the chachapoyaro generals to inform you about the condition of the new world. " she stated and walked to a corner and sat down while one of the chachapoyaro generals got up to speak.

"You said you wanted my Thunderbirds take on the barrier?" Rahkesh asked Nic.

" Yes, you discovered that electricity can be used in conjunction with magic and I was wondering if perhaps using lightning to charge magic and weave the barrier into stability might be possible. " Nic said doubtfully, Rahkesh thought about this for a moment before deciding he would have to talk to Namach about it. "I'll have to think about it, you said you had a way to sense the barrier? " Rahkesh asked with a raised eyebrow, Nic smirked.

"Yes, simple spell really. you could do it with your wand but we use our staffs, for us we just tap the staff on the ground and follow the magic through the sound waves and can feel the barrier but for a wand you'll need a spell to create a sound from magic."

Rahkesh thought for a moment then cast a simple spell "Reverberae." and a sound not unlike a gong rang out from his wand, just as Nic instructed Rahkesh latched onto the sound with his magic and felt around. At first there was nothing but then he noticed the vibration of the sound waves clashing as if with something solid but it felt chaotic and unbalanced not smooth like the vibrations from the sound.

When Rahkesh got back to Akren he got cornered in the hallway outside his rooms by a first year vampire, he didn't know his name and wasn't quite in the mood for a fight but this vampire looked particularly hungry. The vampire, wand in hand, blocked the hallway, easily as tall as Rahkesh and maybe a little heavier. He had short red hair, brown eyes, an upturned nose and he was literally drooling while staring Rahkesh down like a dog after a bone. Rahkesh tried to sidestep and go around but the vampire blocked him, Rahkesh sighed "And you are?" He asked. The vampire just continued to stare and drool. Darays door opened and he stepped out, Daray was clearly about to head the other way, probably for dinner but caught sight of the scene, smiled and turned to watch.

"I'll give you one chance to walk away." Rakesh said pulling his wand out. Faster than Rakesh could follow the unknown vampire cast a series of spells, Rahkesh dodged all but the last which just so happened to be a disarming spell, just as his wand flew out of his hand he wandlessly summoned it back to him. Just as his wand came back over his shoulder the vampire lunged, fangs coming out. _rookie_ Rakesh thought as he sidestepped and pulled his chachapoyaro staff out of it's hiding place in his ear.

As the vampire stumbled past Rahkesh, Rahkesh cracked him in the back of the head then took his feet out from under him. As the vampire hit the ground he began firing off more spells, each one shining brightly as it sailed through the air. Rahkesh dodged, bobbed and weaved but got hit with a curse that ruptured an internal organ, felt like his spleen or a kidney, a curse that made every nerve in his body scream in pain and a banishing curse that blasted him into a wall where he hit his head so hard he started to see stars.

Officially pissed off Rahkesh let his magics loose, instantly a strong cold wind blew through the corridor and put the vampire back on his ass just as he had gotten up, thunder rumbled, lightning sparked all over Rahkeshs body, the spicy tang of vaporized venom filled the air and Rahkeshs eyes started glowing gold with killing curse green streaks. Rahkesh saw red, he didn't know who this vampire was but he wanted him dead, magical backlash be damned. The vampire made the mistake of looking into Rahkeshs eyes and instantly the corridor was full of blood curdling screams, but for Rahkesh that wasn't enough. He didn't know why the vampire was in so much pain from just eye contact but he didn't care, Rahkesh took out his wand and decided to use an old spell he'd learned from a potions book, a book he still had in his rooms. "Sectum sempra!"

After Rahkesh took the vampires arms and legs off with the spell he grabbed one of his arms off the ground and beat him with it until he stopped screaming, then walked over to the closest window and chucked the vampires limbs out into the cold, brushed off his hands, banished the blood off his clothes and went to his rooms.

After Rahkesh had left, Daray stood in the hall invisible and stared with a mix of awe and horror at what Rahkesh had just done to this vampire, a first year by the name of Scott. After a minute he realized that the vampire wasn't healing from the spell Rahkesh had used to remove his limbs and that Scott was probably about to die, since Daray didn't feel like dying from the backlash as well he decided he had to do something but thought that Rahkeshs point was too beautiful to erase. Daray walked over to the dying first year and after trying every healing spell he knew decided he would just have to cauterize the wounds to stop the bleeding. That done and feeling that Scott wouldn't die in his own pool of blood in Darays hallway, Daray decided he'd need to have a chat with Rahkesh.

_He learned his lesson then _Sygra said after Rahkesh had explained what had happened. When he had walked into his rooms he had seen Sygra on his desk, coiled up, head held high with a solid glare pointed directly at him. She had started to berate him about almost dying again without her around. _You should leave the concealments off constantly, you're much more intimidating this way. _She stated regarding Rahkeshs uncontrolled magic.

_I would be less intimidating if I was always like that. _Rahkesh replied reigning himself in. "You almost killed hi-AAAARRRAARRGGHH!" Daray had appeared on Rahkeshs couch startling him so bad that he had accidentally and unintentionally shot him with a bolt of lightning. Sygra laughed, _If he saw the whole thing he should've known you'd still be on edge. _

"What the fuck!?" Daray yelled from the floor.

"Sorry, you startled me." Rahkesh said not feeling very sorry, it still pissed Rahkesh off that he couldn't figure out how Daray always got in unnoticed. Rahkesh decided he'd definitely have to give Daray a couch for his birthday. Just as Rahkesh started to heal himself fully he was knocked flat from behind and looked up just in time to see Satan the magical vampire bat land on Darays shoulder and chirp at him. Daray smirked "Good job Satan." He told the bat as it bit his ear and lapped at the blood.

"One of these days one of you is going to accidentally kill the other one of you." Silas said striding in, Nuri bounding ahead of him. "That was you?" he asked pointing over his shoulder, Rahkesh nodded. "There's a lot of students out there, that grabbed quite a bit of attention." he said approvingly with a small smirk.

"Are you guys ready for your next bloodmagic pieces yet?" Rahkesh asked, changing the subject.

"Not yet." Daray sighed. "I can't figure out what chamber to use for my first offensive piece. I've checked and felt out every chamber at different times of day and none of them feel right."

" Maybe try the one with the basilisk skeleton, I know Namach said that ones dangerous because the snake was driven mad with anger but this is offensive bloodmagic and your demon form is also a reptile." Rahkesh suggested.

" No way." Silas threw in. "His demon instincts would go apeshit over that snakes magics, what is that?" he asked looking curiously at Rahkesh Rahkesh noticed, and winced, he wasn't looking at Rahkesh, he was looking at his wand which Rahkesh was absentmindedly twirling between his fingers.

Rahkesh sighed, both vampires were staring hard at his wand.

"I've never seen wood like that." Silas stated, staring at the white wooded wand. Daray was strangely quiet, though Rahkesh knew his rooms were secure he cast anti-eavesdropping spells anyway. Sygra wound up him and onto his shoulders, looked at him and bobbed her head as if to encourage him. "Well... it's.." Rahkesh shook his head and pulled an armchair off his shelf, enlarged it and sat down. "It's Dyalnos." He stated flatly.

The vampires took it better than he'd thought they would, they both looked at him with clear looks of confusion on their faces.

"The fuck is that?" Daray asked. "Never heard of it."

"Of course it being you we should've expected you to make a wand out of something rare and almost unheard of." Silas agreed. Rahkesh explained what it was and why they'd never heard of it. As soon as he said it was elven Daray turned into a demon, when he finished both vampires busted up with laughter. Rahkesh scowled, it was exhausting when everyone found your imminent death hilariously amusing. "Is this what Namach tore you apart about?" Daray asked still laughing.

"Yes, though I couldn't tell if he was amused or relieved that it wouldn't be the demons who destroyed all life on Earth." the vampires slowly pulled themselves back together.

" So what kind of special powers does that wood have?" Silas asked.

"I'm not sure, I haven't experimented too much with it yet but Namach said that what leaks off my spells smells a little like my blood." Rahkesh shrugged.

XX

Rahkesh knocked on Namachs door, he knew something was off the second the door opened. It was dark, the torches out and the light from all the luminescent vines snuffed out. Cautiously Rahkesh stepped inside, he jumped when he heard a lowly irritated growl and turned to find Eli, wary of Rahkesh as always. He stepped further into the room and Namach came striding into the room with a notebook and a bottle of blood with the name Da Vinci on it. He strode over to his desk and sat down. After pouring himself a glass of blood he looked up at Rahkesh and smiled. "He died." before Rahkesh could guess as to what he was referring to Namach continued "Scott, the vampire who attacked you. He couldn't heal his injuries because of the curse you used." Namach paused. "And the fact that he didn't have any limbs. Beautiful statement you made by the way, what was that spell?"

"Just a spell I picked up from an old book, it's called sectum sempra, real nasty I've been thinking about trying it on the demons but I think their scales will block it." Rahkesh replied taking one of the armchairs across the beautiful ornate, huge jewel encrusted desk from his ancient professor. Namach got a distant look on his face for a moment then smirked. "It works if you catch them off-guard." he stated and Rahkesh remembered that he was speaking with a golem and that Namach was actually still fighting demons.

"Where are you right now?" He asked, keen to keep up on the fighting.

"Japan, quite an impressive amount of arch demons came through as well as a significant amount sorcerers but I think this portal is just about done for." Rahkesh noted a hint of disappointment on his face and laughed.

"I think you're loving this a bit too much."

"It's been quite some time since there's been a good war, feels good to stress my magics again." Namach smiled, showing off both fangs. Rahkesh didn't feel bad for the demons but almost.

"Why don't we just send you into the demon realm so you can exterminate them?" Rahkesh joked.

" I've thought about it but going through the portal would most likely weaken me too much to get all of them and I wouldn't want to be stuck there." Namach replied literally.

" So I've been thinking about using lightning for my next offensive bloodmagic piece in the hopes of gaining some conscious control of what the bolts do and their shape and whatnot." Rahkesh stated changing the subject. Namach thought for a moment and took a drink from his glass, forehead creased with thought.

"It might work, probably be a long session though." he didn't seem particularly happy about this prospect and Rahkesh wondered again what about his lightning was so unnerving to the all-powerful ancient vampire. He really hated not knowing what he was supposed to be transforming into. "If you're going to do that ritual you'll likely need to use all your knives." Namach stood suddenly and vanished. _things probably just got interesting in Japan_ Sygra stated from Rahkeshs shoulder.

_indeed, I almost feel bad for those demons._ Rahkesh replied heading out of Namachs rooms and towards the bloodmagic Chambers to hopefully get some idea of what chamber to use for this particular piece.

on his way there Rahkesh noted that none of the vampires would look at him but for a few last year students who gave him a head nod or said hello, he found this amusing. Once there he bumped into Headil who was watching a last year Amadan necromancer performing a ritual, Rahkesh joined him. The last year Amadan was a female by the name Noel, she was very tall at six foot seven and beautiful enough to be a Veela. She had long blonde hair with silver highlights that were apparently natural, she had grey eyes with golden orange streaks. She was slim but curvy and was very graceful in the way she moved. Inside the chamber she was standing in a circle of blood runes with a shiny Chrystal bowl full of blood in front of her and she was cutting herself up in various ways and places. Training to be a black necromancer every ritual required self-inflicted pain, though every cut looked very painful her facial expressions never changed. She never grimaced or winced, as he watched she picked up a small vial with a glowing neon blue liquid and divided it twice. Holding the vial with a third of the liquid still in it and levitating the rest in two small orbs in the air in front of her she cut two long lines, one on each forearm and drank the vial while simultaneously injecting the other two thirds into her forearms. At this she grimaced and Rahkesh could tell she was trying hard not to scream, she quickly started quietly chanting and applying more cuts on her face, throat, chest, arms and legs. She conjured a small vial and captured a few of her tears, levitating the vial she conjured another and captured some blood from her throat, then beginning the chant again she poured the two vials into the bowl.

She then cut two small slits on both sides of her neck and one on the front, using magic she pulled all the neon blue liquid out of the cuts and poured that into the bowl as well. The blood in the bowl started boiling and giving off a glittery silver steam, Noel started up her chanting again and activated a couple of her bloodmagics. glowing gold lines of runes ignited all over her body. Rahkesh couldn't help but admire how beautiful she was, all cut up, covered in blood and bloodmagic runes, surrounded in waves of magic and so focused you could set off a bomb behind her and she wouldn't notice. Rahkesh noted that her left eyebrow was twitching in such a way it looked like it was dancing.

She stopped her chant suddenly and stabbed her knife deep into her thigh and cried out as she fell to her knee, with a golden glow starting to shroud her hands she waved them over the bowl and a silvery glowing orb emerged. She quickly sent the glowing magic from her hands to surround the silvery sphere. "This is where it gets good." Headil said softly. The sphere floated up and to the other side of the bowl from Noel, she quickly reached down and yanked the knife out and stood as she ignited her healing bloodmagics, as her injuries sealed the orb started to expand and take a slightly transparent shape of a man. The blood in the bowl stopped boiling and turned the same shade of neon blue as the liquid she had used. The man that the orb had turned into started to become defined, he was short with long hair down to his knees, he had a long sharp nose and his eyes weren't quite level with each other. His frown was so sharp it literally looked like an upside-down smile. "How long have you been watching?" Rahkesh asked Headil.

"Only a little longer than you have, I'm looking for the right chamber to do my first defensive bloodmagic ritual, what about you?" he asked.

"I'm looking for a chamber for my next offensive bloodmagic ritual, I was thinking about using chamber twelve again." referring to the chamber with the obsidian and fulgurite that he had used a couple of times before, being closer to it now he could feel that it was the right choice.

"I was actually thinking about using the chamber that Noel is using for summoning." Headil said glancing back, it was really cool and valuable to see that because they were supposed to start learning how to do a summoning in necromancy soon, they were about to start learning how to create inferi and after that they would get to the more complicated stuff like a soul summoning. As very exciting as that was the demon invasion had thrown a wrench in those plans and there was no telling when they would actually start. Rahkesh walked over to the logs and saw that chamber twelve was available all of the next day so he put his name down, he would have to spend the rest of the day going over his runes and making sure his knives were in order but he was rather excited for this piece. If all went well he would be able to shape and control his lightning in much more detail than he could now, as of now he could direct a bolt of lightning at something and almost always hit the mark but they were still wild and if anyone he knew was close they might also get hit.

Rahkesh went and had a rather large lunch knowing that he probably wouldn't eat again until breakfast the next day, he found a mostly empty table and sat down. He looked around the hall admiring it's vast size, big enough to fit the Hogwarts quidditch pitch easily. The walls, lined with glowing vines and torches lit with white fairy cocoons, the domed ceiling lit beautifully with a chandelier the size of a pickup truck. He looked around the room at all the other students, all in their neat groups, the vampires, the various types of fae (the lion Fae staring at him of course, he pretended not to notice) the humans, the Veela, the warewolves. All of them wearing the Akren Crest on various pieces of clothing. What was most surprising was that though some were glaring murderously at other students as if they wanted to kill them, there were no fights.

Except for the yelling coming from a few tables to Rahkeshs left where some students were playing poker, there wasn't even any arguing. Rahkesh reminded himself that this was the calm before the storm, the demons were currently invading all around the world, tens of thousands of magical beings had already died in the war and the invasion had really only just begun, maybe a million demons had come through and millions more were in line at the portals on the other side. If that wasn't enough, soon the elves would realize that Rahkesh had a blood tree and that he was transforming into something that would make them want to kill him instantly, so they would have an elven invasion to ice the cake. Rahkesh sighed and pushed his plate away, he'd lost his appetite.

_you should force yourself to eat_

Sygra chided.

_Yes I know, thank you Sygra_. Rahkesh sighed and took a couple more bites of his food, as he went for another he felt s surge of dark power and fell on his ass as he was no longer in the dining hall. Sygra lunged from around his neck, transforming she took the head off of a demon in one quick bite and quickly spit acid into another's eyes. Rahkesh rolled and summoned his staff as a demon fell out of the sky towards him. Coming to his feet he drove the transfigured point through a demons skull and launched a throwing knife into another's ajar mouth.

While yanking his staff free he glanced around at the chaos and caught his breath, the fighting spread farther than he could see, gigantic fire tornadoes were twisting around everywhere. There were fireballs falling from the sky, smoke rising all around. The sky looked like it was on fire, black and red everywhere there was no blue left in the sky. As Rahkesh glanced up he saw an enormous black demon come tumbling out of the clouds of smoke, both of it's wings torn off, one was twirling out of the sky a little ways away and the other was still in the mouth of the even bigger ice dragon that came soaring down after it.

Namachs eyes looked like they were on fire, he had tons of gnarly cuts all over him and what wasn't bleeding or covered in blood looked like scar tissue. As Rahkesh watched the enormous demon hit the ground with a deafening scream and causing a small earthquake, seconds later Namach landed on top of it with a sickening crunch and a much larger earthquake. Rahkesh stumbled and another demon flew right over him and got swallowed whole by Rahkeshs favorite wyvern basilisk. _Fight now, admire later. _She told him sternly before taking to the air. Rahkesh grinned and felt his cheeks get hot as he blushed.

The fighting was so dense Rahkesh couldn't make out demons from allies, he couldn't go into his Thunderbird form because he knew that would hurt his allies but going into his basilisk form would give a lot of allies something at their back and give Rahkesh a better vantage point. Transforming into his basilisk form Rahkesh snapped a sorcerer demon out of the air and chewed it up. Slithering quickly away from an approaching fire tornado and crunching demons around in his coils Rahkesh quickly found a point under heavy attack, about ten kilometers away there was a large group of vampires focused intently on the tornadoes and easily twice as many defending, or attempting to. The vampires protecting the ones controlling the tornadoes were under siege from two arch demons, at least six scores of betas and alphas and a score of sorcerer demons. Snapping, crushing, chewing and electrocuting demons Rahkesh slowly made his way over to the group. Once there Rahkesh wrapped his lengthy bulk around the group of vampires controlling the tornadoes and attacked any demons coming close, seeing the added security the other vampires quickly broke from their neat ranks and attacked from all sides, overcoming the opposition rapidly. Seeing that they were then starting to lose many of the sorcerers changed tactics and went after Rahkesh, Rahkesh let all his magics loose, the air around him became poisonous, lighting wreathing his entire body and magical wind started rippling around him. The first spells that the sorcerers threw at him were blown aside from the magical wind, as the sorcerers got closer they realized that it was also harder to fly which made it easier for Rahkesh to snap up two in one bite. Spitting the remains of those demons at the others Rahkesh whipped his tail around sending another score or so of demons tumbling. He felt a sharp stab of pain in his back and roared, the Thunderbird answered his call and the demon who had just managed to get under a scale on his back exploded into a shower of limbs and blood under the giant bolt of lightning.

Namach, finished with the biggest arch demon Rahkesh had ever seen, looked up at Rahkesh and smiled, though Rahkesh was too busy to tell, his protection and presence gave confidence and encouragement to everyone who had noticed him. The vampires controlling the tornadoes had doubled as many as they'd had when he first arrived, the ones originally defending them had cleared a wide birth all around them and the others at the portal, now with greater numbers were starting to kill everything as soon as it came through. Taking to the air Namach soared over towards where Rahkesh was roasting and freezing any demons he flew past, he'd need the protection and lightning for his next trick. Landing in front of Rahkesh Namach turned back into a vampire and ignited his bloodmagics, waving his hands around and gathering the magic surrounding him Namach started to glow. Two dark angels soared out of the sky and started circling Namach from above, as everything surrounding him began to dim Rahkesh recognized what was happening from the fight at the manor.

The ground started to shake and a great crunching, grinding noise came from there Earth around the vampire, the dark angels soared out and captured sorcerer demons. Screaming and throwing magic around in a panic the sorcerer demons stood no chance, the ground fell away around Namach and the dark angels started throwing the sorcerer demons into the hole, after a few minutes they dove down after them. Silver and red fire erupted from the huge hole in the ground, surrounding and shrouding Namach in the middle of it. Recognizing imminent death the demons attacking Rahkesh changed tactics yet again and Rahkesh understood why he was summoned by the ancient.

Acting on instinct Rahkesh morphed into his Thunderbird and took to the air, _Sygra-_

_Got it. _She interrupted, understanding as soon as Rahkesh took flight that she needed to guard the vampires controlling the tornadoes of fire. Rahkesh shot up into the sky and instantly clouds began to gather, soaking up the smoke they started raining acid rain onto everyone below, if they weren't all demons and vampires this might have been a problem but the demons with their ever-powerful scales and the vampires all being old and magical didn't seem to care that the rain was dirty. Rahkesh began blasting any demons that got close to Namach or the tornado vampires with bright powerful bolts of lightning until he heard the roar of a super massive beast, moments later something as big as his Thunderbird form bit down hard on his right wing. The Thunderbird screamed in fury and in pain, instantly corporeal the jaws of the arch demon that bit him exploded, the demons scream was so loud it made Rahkeshs ears bleed. The arch demon twisted in the air, still screaming despite it's lack of a bottom jaw and twisted, mangled and broken upper jaw and slashed at Rahkesh opening a nice long gash on his torso. Down below Sygra roared in pain and Rahkesh had had enough with this arch demon, he didn't have the time or the patience for it. Giving it all he had he screamed and summoned the storms rage into one massive bolt of lightning and aimed it at the arch demon coming at him, the bolt of lightning was so big and wide it could have been a skyscraper, it hit it's mark and wreathed the demon, if the demon screamed Rahkesh couldn't hear it, the sound of the resulting thunder was like a bomb going off.

The smell of roasted demon filled the air, there was nothing but silence and the rumble of thunder as the demon fell from the sky. just before it hit the ground Namach, now shrouded in the black mist of death magic, threw out his hand and the black magic responded. In a matter of seconds black magic surrounded the massive falling demon, then Namach threw his hands into a clockwise motion and the black magic swirled back around him, the arch demons body had vanished in the magic. Rahkesh threw more bolts of lightning at the demons, all of them, every demon Rahkesh could see he sent a bolt of lightning at, many exploding as they got hit.

A burst of dark magic punched Rahkeshs mind. _fly over and charge the death magic, quickly. _Namach told Rahkesh, as Rahkesh flew to the top center of the now tornado of black death magic surrounding Namach and coming out of the massive hole in the ground Rahkesh called the storm to him and sent it into the death swirling below him. In a matter of seconds the swirling tornado of death below Rahkesh was charged with electricity and storm, but Rahkesh was angry, angry that he probably wasn't going to perform his bloodmagic ritual in the morning, angry that the demons kept coming through and especially angry that they had hurt his familiar. He called his basilisk and it responded, charging the storm with vaporized venom, the Thunderbird agreed and concentrated the venom into the water in the storm making the rain and moisture of the storm into pure basilisk venom.

_Send it out and low with the death magic._ Namach spoke in Rahkeshs mind, Namach threw the magic out in a massive wave of death, created from the death of demons it would only harm demons and charged with electricity and venom it would cause serious damage. Rahkesh did the same, concentrating the storm, electricity and venom into the death magic, a massive wave of pure charged death rolled out over the battlefield killing every demon it came into contact with upon contact.

less than a minute later the remaining vampires were finishing off the few demons that were left, the portal was a massive crater of melted gold and the landscape looked like actual hell. There were puddles of ooze in every color everywhere, there was nothing within sight that wasn't a charred husk of what it used to be, rocks and unidentifiable chunks of metal were melting here and there, bodies and random fires lay everywhere and though the storm Rahkesh had made was still raging, the smoke in the air was so thick you could taste it and it didn't taste very good.

Rahkesh found Sygra and landed right next to her, morphing back he started casting healing spells immediately. She had gotten overwhelmed and clawed up pretty good but she was still conscious and would be okay. _I can't leave you alone for five minutes without you getting gravely injured_. He chided her, receiving an angry glare in return.

_hypocrite. _She hissed, Rahkesh laughed and finished healing Sygra before turning to heal himself. The gash down his torso was horrible and huge but had stopped bleeding, if Rahkesh was a normal mortal he probably would've bleed out from it by now but because of the dragons blood his blood clots rapidly, making the worst of wounds stop bleeding before they killed him, his shoulder had some gnarly bite marks in it from the arch demon but his adrenaline was still so high he didn't feel any pain. He cast a healing charm on the gash and as the magic hit the wound he hissed, the wound simply vanished, confused he did the same to his shoulder and got the same result then as well the wound he had forgotten about on his back, that one had venom in it and took a couple seconds but still healed way faster than the healing spell should have worked. When Rahkesh looked up he caught Namach staring at him with a creased brow, he quickly turned to an approaching vampire for a report of the battle.

After what felt like an hour all the vampires were teleporting away and other vampires, some warewolves and a few humans were teleporting in to begin cleanup and coverup. How exactly they were going to spin this to make it look as though hell hadn't visited Rahkesh didn't know and he was also much too tired to care. Namach came striding over looking like hell, he still had a few open gashes on his arms, face and torso, his clothes were more just scraps of cloth stuck to him in places, he had bloodmagic runes glowing all over him and he also walked with a slight limp.

"You look like death." Rahkesh told him flatly.

"Feel like it too, I still have enough stored energy to go until this war is over but that stored energy is much more effective if I take time to sleep every few months or so, I haven't slept since before Mexico so I think I'll take a death nap for six hours or so." Namach laughed at Rahkeshs look of horror.

XXXX

Lightning was swirling around the room striking pillars with such force that if they weren't reinforced with magic they would crumble apart, as if every particle of air was a conductor lightning was starting and ending at random points all around the room, most bolts were coming off of Rahkesh and swirling around before coming back and wreathing Rahkeshs body, swirling around him and turning red when they came into contact with his knife as it cut intricate runes all over his body. Rahkesh couldn't see the bolts of electricity turning red as they came into contact with his knife and runes because his eyes were closed but he could feel the electricity changing. He had been performing the ritual for just over nine hours and still had at least another hour to go but he felt great, he sent up a silent prayer of thanks for his other bloodmagics for making the rituals easier to withstand. Cutting the runes and feeling the electricity rage have Rahkesh an amazing rush not unlike a high, he didn't want to remind himself that after the ritual he would most likely be extremely exhausted, not to mention he probably had half the school watching his ritual.

Neither Rahkesh or Namach brought up the strange way he had healed himself after the battle but it was clear that both of them thought it very odd, Rahkesh chided himself for letting his thoughts drift while performing a very risky and untested bloodmagic ritual given how the most minor of mistakes would lead to a very gruesome death but Rahkesh found being so near death, so occupied and so connected with his magic very relaxing and freeing. There was nothing quite like being one with his magic, feeling it flow, feeling it's power, feeling as if he could purpose it and coordinate with it to accomplish anything. _If only I could figure out how to fix the barrier_ he sighed. Reigning himself back in he focused on his lightning, it's flow around the room, the way it struck his skin and the way it flowed off of him and shot off him hitting the one-way mirror, how it seemed to like hitting the rubies, emeralds and diamonds in the ceiling and wrapped wildly around the pillars.

_Wait. _Rahkesh thought, _how do I know where it's striking?_ Rahkesh never once opened his eyes and though he could usually feel the lightning as if it were part of him he could never really tell exactly what it was doing. _The ritual is working well._ Rahkesh thought, he focused harder and almost dropped his knife as a rush of light flashed through his mind, pausing and letting his focus on the lightning recede he continued, turning up the intensity, strength and voltage of the lightning as he came nearer to finishing the ritual. The last thirty minutes were a struggle because the Thunderbird was desperately trying to break through and transform but he kept it under control. After Rahkesh finished he spent forty-five minutes stretching and thinking over what that flash of light in his mind could have been and what it could mean.

After breaking and soaking in the runes on the floor and being pleasantly surprised at actually getting all of it instead of some getting stuck in his ears like it usually does Rahkesh stumbled through the door and pressed his hand to the wall igniting the cleaning process, just as he turned around and reached for his robe Namach appeared, dark power raging around him, eyes glowing, fangs actively growing and one of the creepiest smiles Rahkesh had ever seen on his ancient professors face.

"With the exception of whatever gave you pause that ritual went perfectly." Namach purred, Rahkesh took a step back and silently cast a scent concealing charm, knowing full well it wouldn't help much against the three thousand year old vampire, sure enough..

"Unfortunately there really isn't much that can block my sense of smell, and you Rahkesh, are simply the most delicious smelling being I have ever met." Namach purred taking a step closer. Rahkesh felt the freezing dark magic start washing over him and start messing with his pheromones, Rahkesh fought it but couldn't combat it coming from the ever-powerful ancient vampire.

"Fuck." Rahkesh said, his bloodmagic runes he did to fight someone messing with his pheromones flaring to life on his skin.

"No." Rahkesh mumbled barely able to speak, all of a sudden Namach lurched around and yanked a vampire out of the hallway, slamming him into the wall and sinking his fangs deep into his neck. The vampire, a third year by the name of Jav who Rahkesh had briefly met when he had asked him to collect some information from the MLFC was clearly terrified at first but as soon as Namach had sunk his fangs into his neck he got a very blissful relaxed look on his face and his eyes rolled back in his head. Rahkesh stared unsure of what to do as the vampire started to get really really pale while Namach drank his blood.

_The vampires heart rate is getting faint, the ancient will kill him if he doesn't stop. _Sygra said slithering off the shelf behind Rahkesh onto his shoulders.

_What am I supposed to do? he just almost did that to me. _Rahkesh argued.

_You both would've died from that and he knows it but if he kills that vampire you'll still die, quickly! _Sygra hissed, Rahkesh thinking quickly whipped his wand out and banished the ancient. Namach was ripped away from the vampire and blasted into the wall on the opposite side of the hallway, he quickly righted himself and a flash of freezing magic burned at Rahkesh causing Rahkeshs vision to dim and him to fall to his knees, Rahkesh was dimly aware of Jav collapsing next to him and the cold dark power attacking Rahkesh vanished. As Rahkesh looked up he noted that Namach had vanished as well.

_Well done, that vampire needs some serious rest._ Sygra soothed, trying to comfort Rahkesh but Rahkesh was pretty deeply unnerved from what he'd just experienced.

Stumbling back into his rooms and into the bathroom to start a nice bath Rahkesh noted one of his hippocampus hair notification orbs was lit up, after starting the bath and setting Sygra on the bed he took out the communicator and dabbed a drop of blood on the corner.

"Aye lad, been a while." Moody smiled from the other end, Rahkesh couldn't tell where he was because the background was too dark.

"How are things in Britain?" Rahkesh asked, sensing that there was a reason for this call other than to check in on him.

"Some demons got through and escaped a portal, I've sent out a few reconnaissance teams to try and find them but it's clear they're onto the next faze of their plan." He sighed "How about you? everything good on your end?" Rahkesh contemplated telling him about the blood tree or his final transformation and about the subsequent attack from the elves about both but decided against it.

"Other than the demons and the injuries? how about the fact that classes are bloody haywire because of so many students being moved around and the demons attacking everywhere." Fuck it, he trusted Moody as much as he trusted anyone. "How about the fact that I supposedly have a final transformation from the dragons blood that I drank that supposedly will make the elves want me dead, Namach knows what it is but won't tell me because 'you'll be comatose for years if you knew' and I grew a damn tree for a wand and it just so happens to be exclusively elven and anyone who grows one who isn't an elf will be murdered for such crime, something I didn't know when I grew it and I can't kill it because that would make the whole situation worse. Much worse." Rahkesh dropped his head into his hands and sighed "No, everything's good here Moody." He said, looking up at the hippocampus hair communicator he noted the look of disbelief and amusement on his old friends face just before he threw his head back and bust out into deep booming laughter. _Great, just great, everyone finds this incredibly amusing. If only I felt the same way about it._ Rahkesh hissed silently to himself. Sygra coiled up his chair and onto his shoulders and began rubbing her head against his cheek.

"I'm sorry lad, I've just never met someone with a more interesting life. Never a dull moment with you, make sure you write an autobiography before you get murdered by the elves eh?" Moody said still chuckling. "I've been busy training, what's the word with the new world?"

"It's there, you can sense it if you create a sound out of magic and follow the magical sound waves, it's hard to explain but you'll understand when you try it. The problem is that the barrier fluctuates and we can't bring anymore than twenty people across every two weeks. we're working on a fix but that's the situation as of right now." Rahkesh said grimly. "I just preformed a long and painful bloodmagic ritual, I'm exhausted and I've drawn a bath. I'll check in with you again within a couple of weeks." he told Moody.

"Sounds good, stay safe kid." Moody replied.

"You too." Rahkesh tucked the hippocampus hair communicator back into the drawer and grabbed a few of his healing and relaxation potions off his desk and went into his bathrooms. After pouring the potions into his bath Rahkesh slowly slipped into the bath, hissing in pleasure and in pain as the searing hot water set into healing him. Sygra coiled up next to him on the side of the tub, Rahkesh closed his eyes and felt the euphoria of the potions really set in. _I'll wake you in an hour master. _Sygra hissed soothingly, or maybe it was the potions making everything seem soothing.

BANG! Rahkesh snapped awake, instantly aware yet not moving a muscle, he sensed around but could tell nothing except that something was on his eyes and chest, slowly Rahkesh sat up and looked down to see two floating slices of cucumber and that he was wearing a coconut bra, he realized he had something in his hand and saw it was some sort of pink drink in an iced glass with a purple umbrella sticking out of it, he turned and looked into the mirror to notice that he was wearing purple lipstick that matched the floating umbrella and that his hair was in pigtails. He quickly turned the rest of the way around to see Daray sprawled on the floor with Sygra on the ground next to him.

_I thought it was funny so I let him do it, but then he took a picture and told me the school would love it. I think he now knows I understand English_. Rahkesh noticed the poloroid camera in the corner and the little photo lying face down next to it and was instantly enraged.

_Why is he unconscious? _Rahkesh asked assuming Sygra had bit him.

_I bit him, won't last too long since he's a vampire. _Sygra confirmed. Rahkesh set to work.

Rahkesh turned Darays hair hot pink and transfigured his shirt into a really short and really small hot pink tank top, he then transfigured his pants into a really really skimpy and short brown and white plaid skirt and his shoes into bright pink heels. Thinking that wasn't enough he gave him a really tacky bright yellow Daisy hat, he then very carefully levitated him into a rather sexy position onto his couch, went back grabbed the camera and came back to take the picture. Sygra, coiled up on Rahkeshs bed thought this was highly amusing. Rahkesh stepped back and found the right spot for the picture, _Two can play at this game_. He hissed teasingly, just before he took the picture Daray woke up, his head snapped up, drool hanging off his chin, eyes half closed from the remains of Sygras poison and Rahkesh snapped the photo right in that second.

Rahkesh quickly ripped the photo from the camera, transfigured the camera into a flash grenade, ripped the pin out and chucked it at Daray. Daray, still in a daze caught the grenade before he realized what it was but quickly chucked it out the window, it blew up before it left and left him even more dazed. When he could, he looked towards the door and saw Rahkesh was gone and sprinted after him.

After chucking the grenade Rahkesh bolted straight from the room, he practically summoned his door off it's hinges and turned down the hall at a full sprint, he bolted around corners and booked it down hallways diving and somersaulting under and around fellow students on his way to the dining hall. As he ran he magically made copies of the photo, not worried about dropping the few he did. He heard a roar behind him but was almost at the dining hall. "Impedimenta!" Daray roared behind him but the spell missed as Rahkesh ducked around another corner. "Petrificus totalus!" Daray tried again, Rahkesh rolled under the spell and burst through the dining hall doors and used a spell to blast the photos throughout the room. Laughter erupted instantly from everyone in the room, Rahkesh was tackled from behind from a raging Daray. He punched Rahkesh in the back of the head, stood up and summoned all the photos back to him but the damage was done.

If that wasn't enough, he hadn't changed. With the exception of the heels he was still wearing what he was in the photo, he growled and turned back to Rahkesh. "Ooohh oh oh, we can play this game for sure." Daray growled. "This is going to be_ sooo _much fun." he purred.

Silently Daray cast the Rictusempra charm and held it in place right before Rahkesh as he silently cast the tarantallegra jinx and let them both hit at the same time, Rahkesh caught off guard, instantly burst into uncontrollable laughter and started dancing like his life depended on it. With the whole school laughing at the both of them Daray transfigured his clothes back and left the room.

\--

Thank you for giving this a chance! I'm sorry it's taken so long to upload this chapter but I'm a very busy person and I'm putting all the quality into this that I can, it's hard to live up to Miranda's work.

Please review! Criticism welcome, it helps to know others opinions, furthermore if you have anything in mind, anything at all, please leave it in a review. If you have any ritual ideas, spells, hexes, jinxes character ideas, anything, please leave it in the review. If it's good or gives me any ideas you may well see it in this book, much much more to come and I'm very excited for it!


	4. Chapter Four

**Thank you for reviewing and giving this a chance, I'm really excited to bring this third book into reality. Again I apologize for the slow updates of chapters, I'm unfortunately very busy all the time and I have to spend some of my free time with my dog or she yells at me and gets all sad. I hope I don't disappoint anyone with my take of this and again, I reiterate, if anyone has any ideas or something they think would be cool, please leave it in a review, if there's something someone suggests that I like or that gives me an idea it may just end up in the story somewhere.****Please enjoy the fourth ****chapter**

**Chapter****_ four --_**

Rahkeshs abs and face hurt by the time he shook off the spells Daray had cast on him, this didn't bother him so much as the look Daray had given him when he announced that Rahkesh had just started a prank war. Rahkesh didn't want to imagine the kind of pranks Daray would pull in such an event. Hell the whole prank that Rahkesh had just pulled was Darays idea in the first place. The only thing that gave Rahkesh any ounce of peace was that he could think of a few pranks himself. But even that was discomforting, if he could think of a few good ones he could only imagine the kind of things Daray would think of.

"Priceless." A random warewolf Rahkesh didn't even know told him with a fat grin as he walked past in the hallway, Rahkesh sighed. _I might be in over my head here_ he hissed in parseltongue to the empty hallway. Marching on he came to Namachs doors, knocked and after a few moments the doors opened smoothly. Rahkesh stepped in and around Eli who was laying in the entry way staring at the ancient, It looked like Eli was worried and the fact that he didn't turn and hiss at Rahkesh when he entered told him he was probably right. Looking up at the ancient Rahkesh could see why, he looked like he had the migraine of the century, head in hands, hair a rats nest, eyes bloodshot and puffy and all the magic around him such a chaotic mess that it was already giving Rahkesh a headache. "Is this a golem?" Rahkesh asked apprehensively, Namach looked up and Rahkesh was swarmed by a cold dark power. Not seeing Namach getting any control any time soon Rahkesh centered himself and let his magics loose, a rush of ozone surrounded him with a feeling not unlike feathers brushing against his skin and he could feel his magics beating Namachs magics back, he knew Namach didn't want to hurt him and that was the only reason his magics were capable of giving Rahkesh a little breathing room.

"No." Namach replied simply, this fact made Rahkesh worried, Namach didn't ever really need rest, he could stay awake for a year without losing his mind. Rahkesh didn't know how long he'd been awake but it couldn't have been more than a few months and sure, he'd spent a lot of energy fighting the demons but what was sitting in front of Rahkesh now was a disaster of the ancient. Rahkesh took a shot in the dark, literally, the room was almost pitch black, the torches were out, the magical vines weren't giving off their usual light and the sun didn't seem capable of streaming through the open windows. "The golem has taken control of itself and it's trying to be the only one, the partial autonomy is no longer partial is it?" he asked a little skeptically. Namach looked up and stared at Rahkesh without showing a single sign of emotion.

"Is it that obvious?" he grumbled. Rahkesh was speechless, this could be worse than the demon invasion, Namachs golems had all his intelligence, all his knowledge, all his capabilities. Having such a nearly indestructible golem was cool and great because it could fight battles for you and for all intents and purposes be your equal but if it decided it wanted to overthrow you and or kill you it could be very very difficult to combat.

"Didn't you install some sort of kill switch? What is it doing to have you so ravaged?" Rahkesh asked, Namach sighed and shook his head.

"Due to the blood crystal structure it isn't affected by my physical or mental state, yes it's threadmagic core technically has a time limit but only if it can't create more, which it can because I have stores of my own blood and it's managed to get it's hands on some, though not from my stores of blood, it hasn't used it to create a new threadmagic core but to do bloodmagic so that I cannot summon it back to me and I fear if I were to encounter it there would be the fight of a millennia on our hands. I am weak from what it has done and from the time and energy I have expensed fighting the demons. If I were to sleep it would know and probably try to assassinate me, it could kill me in other ways but this would be easiest and quickest, being my golem it could get past my guards and defenses easily and given my death and my body it could make itself permanent, very difficult and most likely fatal but possible." Rahkesh was speechless, this was worst case scenario, the demons invading, his transformation just around the corner, the subsequent attack from the elves and now Namachs golem seeking to take over the world. Rahkesh wondered if his hair might start turning gray soon.

"Isn't there something we can do? If we got a bunch of super powerful beings to guard you while you slept couldn't you then best the golem easily? What about your life crystals, surely you have quite a few..." Rahkesh scrambled for a solution.

"Ah, yes, the life crystals..." Namach trailed off before continuing "No, the golem took them, it's the only reason it still exists and will for quite a while longer. Though the idea of guarding me is not a bad one, if we were to take such beings to guard me for eight hours the world would most likely be overrun with demons, so as of right now no, there's nothing we can do... Maybe..." Namach trailed off.

Rahkesh waited but Namach didn't seem to want to finish his thought. "Maybe what?" He prodded, pushing the vampire to think of something.

"Nothing." He said flatly after a moment before getting up and walking deeper into his rooms without saying another word, as he left the room the door swung open. Clearly his que to leave, Rahkesh turned to Eli and Eli looked at him pleadingly as if trying to convey something but he wasn't Rahkeshs familiar and Rahkesh couldn't figure out what he was trying to say. Dumbfounded, out of ideas and as worried as ever Rahkesh went to his own rooms to think.

Stepping into his rooms he fell, not onto the floor but into a pit, one second the floor was there the next it was gone. Surrounded by pure nothingness he couldn't tell where the bottom was, after a brief stint of panic and a minute to think he realized he was either about to die from an extreme height or that there simply was no bottom. _Damnit Daray. _He hissed and heard Sygra laugh. _Sygra? _he asked.

_Yes master? _She asked with a note of amusement.

_Are you in here with me? _He asked wondering if Daray cast her into this pit as well, it would make sense considering she ruined his first prank.

_Hmm, yes and no. _She said thoughtfully.

At first Rahkesh was mad at his familiar for such an answer but then he realized that she had just told him that he fell into an illusion, he was probably just floating right above the floor. Before he could even try to break the illusion he had a gut feeling that he couldn't explain, a feeling of magic that wasn't his and threw up a shield just in time to deflect a curse. He heard a yelp and he suddenly crashed to the floor, just in front of him was an angry looking squid. The small bright purple creature reached out with one of it's tentacles and slapped him across the face, Rahkesh rolled and whipped out his wand but before he could cast a spell the squid used another tentacle holding it's wand to transfigure itself back into Daray. "How did you know I was here?" He asked.

"I didn't, I just sort of sensed your magic." Rahkesh replied getting back to his feet. Just as he got to his feet a small black blur blew past him and tackled Daray to the floor.

"OW! NURI STOPIT!" Daray bellowed from under the attacking cat, Silas strolled in laughing.

"Grandmother wants you to report back to the palace tonight, she and Sierra are working on something and I guess they'll need your help." he told Daray. Daray getting back to his feet with several deep scratches that were mending themselves scowled at Silas and kicked Nuri, Nuri hissed and tackled Daray again. They both rolled on the floor hissing, growling and screaming. Rahkesh and Silas laughed.

"Where have you been?" Rahkesh asked Silas, Silas got a tired look on his face.

"Helping with the captured demons, nothing new really. I rather think the interrogations of the demons is kind of pointless at this point." he sighed. "How have classes been?"

"I haven't really been to any." Rahkesh grimaced. This could turn out to be a problem but from what he had heard nobody was really learning anything with the schedules being so chaotic and all over the place.

"The professors aren't really teaching anything which is why nobody is learning anything, they think it's pointless with the invasion because nobody shows up to routine classes. The headmistress is the only one who thinks classes should continue right now and it is helpful for some trying to learn things to help with the war but regular classes just aren't working." Tyler said strolling into the room and smiling at the wrestling pair on the floor.

"OW! NUUUURRRRIIIII!"

"There are still some classes that are going on as planned however, classes such as potions and fighting, both of those could prove very useful for fighting the demons. And bloodmagic/necromancy of course." Ally said just behind Tyler, she was carrying a small black box that seemingly had no top. "My brother said that they've managed to kill most of the demons that escaped the portal in southern Russia." She added.

"ALRIGHT!" Daray yelled shoving the shiny black panther away and shooting to his feet. It was clear who won the fight, Daray was cut up all over and bleeding all over Rahkeshs' floor, Nuri on the other hand looked completely fine except for the small chunk missing from his left ear from the last battle. Daray glared at Silas but Silas didn't seem to notice, or maybe he didn't care. Probably the latter. The next fighting class with professor Ahmad was in thirty minutes and Rahkesh hadn't gone to any classes in a worryingly long time, he really didn't want to fail any classes but he figured his grade in Ahmads class was fine since he had a huge crush on Rahkesh. "I'll be going to fighting class today, are you guys planning on going to bloodmagic this evening?" he asked Silas and Daray. Silas nodded but Daray shook his head.

"No, apparently I'm needed at the compound." he grumbled and sulked out the door. Ally shifted on her feet looking like she wanted to say something but was reluctant, she didn't get the chance since Tyler didn't notice and spoke before Ally could. "The wyverns have joined the attack in the places that need the most reinforcements, some have been injured but none have been killed. Things are getting pretty bad, more and more keep coming through portals. Portals that seemed like they couldn't transport very many are transporting a lot, they're sending so many through the portals so fast that the portals aren't just melting but exploding when they've taken too many. There aren't so many arch demons coming through anymore but they've made up for that with with sorcerer demons." With that there was a moment of silence, this war was getting bad.

"Do we have an updated death count?" Rahkesh asked not really wanting to know the answer.

"Yes." Ally said. "I just came from downstairs to check on that, they estimate that we've lost over fifty-thousand but they don't know the exact number." She sighed, turned and left. Rahkesh and Silas looked at each other, neither one knowing what was going on with her.

"Well I guess I'll see you in fighting class." Tyler said before leaving as well. Silas went and sat on the couch, Rahkesh closed his door and started to collect his things for Ahmads class.

"Are you going?" he asked Silas who seemed perplexed and didn't answer right away.

"Yeah I guess so, I heard something happened after your last bloodmagic ritual but only that something had happened." He said skeptically.

"Ah, yes. Namach... Is in a bit of a situation, a really bloody bad one actually..." he trailed off and finished gathering his things. "Come on, I'll tell you on the way to class."

"Well shit." Silas said as they started sparring in class, they weren't learning anything new today but practicing the more complex moves that they learned in their last class, Silas hadn't been in that class so it was new for him but he seemed to be picking up the moves rather quickly. Being a powerful Ateres probably helped but Rahkesh was still holding his own. "So, what then?" he asked as he took Rahkeshs legs out from under him and pinned him to the floor, Rahkesh barely managed to keep his left arm free and threw a punch at the side of his head. Silas was forced to roll off to keep from getting hit which is what Rahkesh was hoping for. Rahkesh rolled with him and put his legs over Silas' arms and started punching him in the face, Silas threw his legs up and wrapped them around Rahkeshs' neck and pulled him off. Rahkesh rolled backwards and came up on his feet to face Silas again.

"I don't really know, I suggested guarding him while he slept but we can't spare the people needed for that." He panted. "Honestly I don't know what to do." Silas was apparently on the same page because he didn't offer up any ideas either. As they circled each other the room changed, they were in the room in the basement designed to change to any type of climate and terrain. They had been in a forest at first, then the desert and now it changed to a snowy, rocky terrain not unlike the mountains around Akren.

The next morning Rahkesh was in the shower when an alarm went off, it was his turn for battle. He jumped out of the shower, banished the water off of himself, got dressed in his battle gear and grabbed his weapons. Racing outside he met up with Silas, Ally, Tyler and Matolo who had half of his pack as well as about a hundred more students. "Okay! Everyone grab a portkey and get ready, we will be going to a portal just outside of Sydney, Australia today." professor Marluck (male) announced. For professors they would be joined by both Marlucks', professor Ahmad and professor Stiali, the threadmagic teacher. They were all wearing a lot of bloodmetal, arm bands, leg bands, necklaces, earrings and belts. Professor Stiali had much less bloodmetal but made up for that with threadmagic, his entire get up was glowing with a sort of power that only threadmagic could give off, he was even wearing a crown made from glowing red threads, Rahkesh didn't know what sort of purpose that would serve but knew it would definitely help.

_Someday I'm going to learn threadmagic. _He thought to himself, determined to eventually figure out why he couldn't do it. It really irritated Rahkesh that he couldn't do it, not even something so simple as tying chains together. "Everyone ready? here we go!" professor Ahmad announced. In a moment people started disappearing, Rahkesh received the mental image and apparated out. The first thing that hit Rahkesh was the heat, the Akren valley was a brisk thirty four degrees, much warmer than it usually is this time of year but nothing to Australia. The temperature couldn't have been any cooler than a hundred degrees, Sygra hissed and lunged off his shoulders transforming before she could hit the ground. Rahkesh was pretty sure she was really starting to enjoy these battles, the way she flew around with ease and glee as she ate a bunch of demons from all around her.

There were demons everywhere, it reminded Rahkesh of the battle Namach had summoned him to. All kinds of demons, including a couple arch demons flying around and destroying everything they could, even some of their own. Everything was charred and burnt, fires still burning everywhere. The sky was full of smoke, demons and fighters on brooms and the occasional animagus flying around. Rahkesh whipped out his wand "Sectum sempra!" he yelled cutting demons engaged in battles around him into pieces. After one of them lost it's head and fell to the ground Silas smiled at him, he was fighting that demon. Silas whipped out his wand and flung a spell towards Rahkesh, Rahkesh hit the ground as the demon behind him exploded into flames from Silas' spell. Rahkesh lunged from the ground and summoned out his staff from it's earring and immediately engaged in battle with an Alfa.

Tuning out the screams and shouts of those around him Rahkesh fought like there was no tomorrow, he took down over a score of demons with his wand and staff before one of them got a lucky shot in. While fighting a rather impressively large gold, bronze and grey beta another demon behind him swung it's axe at his side, his threadmagic Akren Crest on that shoulder prevented the blade from taking his arm off but he still felt like he got hit by a truck. The impact sent him flying ten feet to his right, right into a warewolf he didn't know. The two went down in a tangle of limbs and the warewolf got impaled on another demons axe. Rahkesh rolled pulling the warewolf with him and the axe out of his back at the same time, surrounded by demons the warewolf pulled out his wand and started attacking from the ground while Rahkesh tried to heal him. With so many demons attacking and the warewolf unable to get up all Rahkesh could really do was prevent any demons from finishing him off, every time he tried to heal him the demons closed in and his attention was pulled from the warewolf in order for them to survive, _where is his pack? _He dimly wondered struggling to keep the warewolf alive. Knocking a wingless betas sword away with his staff and summoning it's brain through it's nose he looked around for help but couldn't see anyone else in the chaos, he sent out his mind searching for Silas or Ally. He found Silas first, _I need help! I have an injured warewolf over here and there's too many demons for me to have the time to heal him. _Rahkesh told him whilst simultaneously combusting a demon.

_Where are you? _Silas asked. Looking around Rahkesh realized landmarks weren't going to help to describe his location, by the charred tree? Around the big melting boulder that looks just like all the many other boulders? No, but he had an idea. "Fulguris!" Rahkesh had been excited to try his lightning since his last bloodmagic ritual, the sky rumbled, Rahkeshs' bloodmagic flared and he screamed in pain as a white hot light from inside his mind blinded him and sent him to his knees. When he regained his sight he saw a huge black demon lunging for him with it's claws out. Falling flat on his back while transfiguring a speartip onto his staff, he drove the staff into the demons chest, straight into it's heart and it screamed as it died. He rolled and came up on his feet to find a whole pack of demons on top of the warewolf he was trying to protect, not sure if he was still alive under there Rahkesh tried again. "FULGURIS!" He roared, again he was blinded by a white hot light that seared his mind but he kept giving the lightning all he had anyway. Feeling the lightning strike in front of him was the only thing he could sense, all he could see was white light, all he could hear was the lightning and thunder, all he could smell was ozone but he could feel the lightning strike in front of him. Channelling his offensive bloodmagics he took control of the lightning and sent it circling around him. He felt something explode behind him and knew he just barely avoided death. Finally he couldn't take the pain and light any longer and let the lightning go but his sight was taking it's time to come back to him, with thunder still rumbling and the screams and shouts of battle ringing around him his hearing wasn't much good either. He knew if he panicked he'd die so he stood still and calmed himself, he called on his magic to surround him while simultaneously calling on his healing bloodmagics to hopefully repair his sight faster.

He sensed dark magic to his left and dove towards it, staff coming up first he hit the demon across the face, swinging around he jumped up throwing his knee into the demons gut whilst driving his spear tipped staff through the bottom of it's jaw, he sensed the demon go limp, yanked his staff out and spun off it's falling body immediately getting raked by a set of claws down his left leg from another demon. Rahkesh threw a couple spells at where it had come from and sensed the demon deflect them, having a better idea of its location he activated his first offensive bloodmagic set and thrust out his hand crushing the demon to death. He spun to his left as a demon tail was thrust for his head, he ducked beneath another's claws and a sword hacked into his right thigh, screaming out in pain he yanked the sword out of it's wielders hands, twisted and thrust it back into that demon driving the blade deep into it's gut and stumbling away. He really wished his eyesight would come back. "Sil-AAARRGGHGG" Rahkesh tried to call out to Silas but was cut off from getting smacked to the ground from what felt like a wing, he rolled but too late he realized that he rolled the wrong way. A tail spike was driven all the way through him and into the ground, just below the ribs. Rahkesh gasped and coughed blood, he just had time to think that this was it. They apparated into a battle and got overrun, it didn't matter that the tail wasn't poisonous, he was pinned and completely surrounded. Just as he thought he was going to die he heard a familiar roar and the demon standing over him was ripped away as Sygra landed next to Rahkesh, picked him up and soared back into the air.

_Is your sight returning yet? _Sygra hissed and Rahkesh breathed a painful sigh of relief.

_Yes, slow-_ he was cut off by briefly becoming weightless as Sygra dropped him. Panicking now he transformed, but not into his Thunderbird for fear of the lightning making things worse. Instead he transformed into his basilisk form and hit the ground hard with a pained hiss causing a small earthquake. Instantly he was swarmed by demons but he could see shapes now and started attacking. _Fucking gross._ He hissed as he involuntarily ate several demons, snatching so many up and attacking the countless amounts of them he couldn't help it. As everyone left started to rally around the giant basilisk Rahkesh rolled, thrashed and snapped at every demon he could find. Calling on his magics the air around him became heavy with poison, as his vision finally started to really return he glanced up to see Sygra taking demons out of the sky so fast it looked like it was raining demons. Rahkesh looked around for his friends, he wasn't pleased when he found them.

They were standing around the last standing tree in several leagues, the tree was on fire but still green on top. It was maybe a hundred foot tall oak, his friends circled around it fighting for their lives. Each had literal swarms of demons attacking them, Silas had a few demons attacking the others and a panther the size of an elephant throwing demons around like cat toys, _that's new _he thought, Ally was a blur she was moving so fast, demons falling all around her. Matolo and a couple of his warewolves were all injured and clearly just trying to stay alive, and Tyler... As Rahkesh watched she went down under a dog pile of demons. Rahkesh roared and slithered her way completely ignoring the demons trying to attack him until his path was blocked by at least a score of sorcerer demons descending from the sky in front of him. They all cast a spell at the same time and Rahkeshs shield couldn't deflect all of it, most of what got through fizzled out over his scales but some seeped into his skin and made him feel like his organs were on fire.

Rahkesh screamed in rage and pain, he attacked the sorcerers with a fury, he managed to turn one to stone which shattered into a hundred pieces upon impact with the ground, he snapped up four more in his jaws and chewed them like bubble gum. Rahkesh hated that the demons tasted good, their blood, how their bones crunched beneath his teeth was just, delicious. Gross. The other demons kept attacking and his defensive bloodmagics deflected most of their spells and his scales deflected most of those that got through but some were causing excruciating pain all throughout his body. He whipped his tail up and around and smacked three more out of the sky.

Rahkesh kept taking down the sorcerers until they were all dead but more kept showing up like an endless horde, he slithered closer to his group of friends and transformed back into his human form. Spearing two demons together with his staff like a kebab and severing another's head with a spell, he made his way the rest of the way over to Tyler but what he found enraged him. She wasn't only dead but she was torn apart, most of her organs were missing, her eyes, brain, tongue, her entire abdomen was shredded and hollowed out, even her limbs were torn off. Rahkesh screamed with pure rage, the basilisk and thunderbird agreed and his throat tore from the sound of all three screaming through it. His magics shrouded him in a whirlwind of power. Behind him Matolo and his last standing warewolves went down and Ally screamed in pain. Silas went down under a barrage of demons and magic but worst of all Rahkesh noticed, was that Sygra was swarmed by sorcerers and Rahkesh could hear her screaming in pain. Rahkeshs heart rate slowed, his vision dimmed, the sound of battle all but disappeared, all of his bloodmagics flared and the magics of both his forms intensified around him. With the smell of tangy poisonous ozone blowing around him in a magical electrified wind, his eyes glowing gold and killing curse green he called on his all his magics. He wanted every damn demon dead, he wanted the portal destroyed, he didn't even care if allies died and he pictured every demon dead.

The magic surrounding Rahkesh turned black, instantly a super storm consumed the sky, lightning and thunder raged like never before, striking constantly, thunder rolling like one continuous explosion shaking the ground like he was standing on a giant speaker. Demons flew in to attack him but were flung aside and killed the instant they touched the black magic swirling violently around him. Rahkesh summoned the storm to do his bidding and was delighted when the lightning didn't hurt his mind, instead time seemed to slow, looking around he could practically _see _the magics in use all around him, surrounding the demons and swirling around him. Hundreds of lightning bolts struck all around at the same time, Rahkesh controlling each one simultaneously. As time slowed it felt to him that his heart stopped but his blood didn't stop flowing, following instinct he willed his blood to become flammable and he burst into flames, luckily the fire didn't hurt and it didn't seem to damage him at all, his clothes didn't burn and neither did his hair.

little did Rahkesh know Namach had teleported onto the battlefield. "_Shit_." he growled. Seeing that Rahkesh wasn't quite in control Namach sent out his magic, he heard the lightning striking all over but couldn't see it. As demons dropped dead all around Namach activated his night vision and paled. The lightning was black, Rahkesh was transforming and had summoned a death storm. "_Death_ lightning." He whispered to himself awed and amazed at what he was seeing. Most of the lightning was incredibly precise, striking down in immense bolts and shooting from demon to demon to demon, all of which dropping dead or exploding as soon as it connected, there was an explosion louder than the others as the death lightning wrapped around, through and layered itself inside the arch demons flying through the air exploded them into pieces that rained down over a vast area. But not all the lightning was so controlled, some were striking at random. As Namach watched a servant of the master of Australia was struck and dropped lifeless to the ground, Namach sent out his magics to shield those he thought were in danger but through the masses of demons and bodies he saw a warewolf get struck and go down. "God damnit Rahkesh!" He yelled as he tried a different tactic and shot out his magics to surround and protect all allies, deflecting black bolts of lightning from hitting anyone who wasn't a demon.

Rahkesh felt a complete and utter bliss at his power, he felt a connection with death as if he were one with it, he felt _unstoppable_. He killed every demon he could find until the only ones left were those teleporting out of the portal, he laughed as he focused on them, a deep evil maniacal laugh because they were teleporting through, screaming in fear and desperately scrambling trying to go back through. He called on all the storm had left and sent it at the portal, the resulting thunder shook the earth so hard that everyone still alive fell to the ground. The lightning struck the portal repeatedly, vaporizing the demons coming through instantly and obliterating the portal. When there was nothing left of the portal but chunks of gold, debris and pieces of demons Rahkesh called the magic back into him and willed his blood to stop burning. When he had control over himself again he realized something was wrong, his magic was still shrouding him like a bubble and his heart had indeed stopped beating but he was still alive. Not quite sure what was going on he started to panic, Sygra landed next to him and he instantly focused on healing her wounds. Once Sygra was healed Rahkesh turned to help his friends, Matolo was still alive but barely, he had lost his right arm and was bleeding profusely. After Healing Matolos wounds Rahkesh noted that his fellow warewolves were all dead, Ally was healing Silas, the panther licking his face looking completely fine. Namach looked fine, if still a little disheveled, _wait... Namach? _Rahkesh thought to himself. _When did he get here? _He wondered.

Before Rahkesh could say anything more Namachs dark power tapped at his mind, Sygra coiled over his shoulders and Rahkesh teleported with Namach back to one of his estates. Standing in the vast, jewel, ruby and marble encrusted entry hall of the estate, with it's massive white marble pillars, black iron torch sconces on the walls and the incredible tapestries and silks hanging everywhere he felt at ease but still tense and a little panicky. Namach, standing ten feet in front of him and staring at him didn't help. "So..." Rahkesh said a little apprehensive.

"You're a Lich. A physical embodiment of magic, still human in a sense but an undead eternal. A god if you will. You have control over all magic, death, life, offensive, defensive etcetera. The reason you weren't capable of using your lightning after that ritual is because you couldn't think at the speed of light, something you could have accomplished with a great deal of bloodmagic but when you transformed you magically charged your brain to do just that." Namach said matter of factly, showing no sign of emotion, not even a hint of sarcasm. Rahkesh laughed thinking this was some sort of a joke but Namach continued to stare, a slight look of pity dawning on the ancients face. After a moment Rahkesh looked at him in disbelief, realization that Namach meant what he had said dawning, adrenaline wearing off and Rahkesh started to feel the pain of his injuries. He fainted.

Rahkesh woke staring at a tapestry of an ice dragon obliterating a castle, it's grey stone walls blasted apart by the fiery ice coming out of the dragons mouth, it's claws crunching through a tower, people running from the castle with their arms in the air and a beautiful view of what looked like the Greek isles a ways behind the castle. He turned to take in the rest of his surroundings, he was lying in the middle of one of the biggest beds he had ever seen, purple and gold with jewels encrusted in the edges of the fabric. He couldn't tell for sure but being Namachs he was pretty sure the glinting gold threads in the fabric were real gold threads, the floors were a shiny white marble with grey swirls here and there and the pillars were snaked with bloodmetal vines of the same type he had seen in the cavern where Daray had undergone his transformation. This was bad news to Rahkesh, it told him that he was still giving off intense amounts of magic. He got up and walked through the strings of glinting jewels that cordoned off the bathroom.

The bathroom was breathtaking as well, the toilet looked like an actual throne, made of gold with a velvet seat. The sink was made of silver with a gold faucet, the counter top was marble and edged with rubies and diamonds. He estimated the bedroom and bathroom combination to be worth at least a couple billion dollars. Glancing into the mirror he couldn't quite believe his eyes, the first thing that he noticed were his eyes, swirling pools of gold and killing curse green and they were glowing bright enough to cast light on whatever was in front of him, the next thing he noticed was that he was a little more pale than usual _though that could just be shock _he hissed quietly to himself.

_A little of both master. _Sygra informed as she slithered in from the bedroom, she looked up at him with a look of pride. At least someone was happy about this. It wasn't just looks though, he could feel his magic swirling around him, the smell of poisonous ozone thick in the air, every molecule of air felt charged as if ready to conduct electricity at any moment. He was a magical anomaly alright.

_How long was I out? _He asked Sygra as he picked her up and put her over his shoulders.

_A couple of days, the ancient healed your wounds and sat with you a while. You helped him greatly. _She told him as she rubbed her head gently on his cheek.

I helped him_? I was unconscious... _Rahkesh hissed back confused, he decided he should find the ancient.

_All the excess magic you were giving off, some of the vines absorbed it and repurposed it for him. He looks much better. _Rahkesh didn't know if this bothered him, he supposed not since he clearly had too much going on, still does in fact.

_Well that's good, I guess. _He told his familiar as he walked from the bedroom into a dining hall that was bigger than most suburban houses. The ceiling was at least one hundred and fifty feet above, the whole cavern of a hall glowed with an amber light from black iron torches hanging on the walls and a chandelier the size of a trailer. Rahkesh wondered just how many estates the old vampire actually had and whether he would ever get to see them all. Making his way around a table the size of a stage towards a pair of elaborate and elegant oak doors big enough for a ship to sail through he felt very small, he pushed on the doors and surprisingly enough they swung open with ease. He found himself in the entry hall of a castle with gigantic windows lining the front wall, looking out he saw a ring of lush green mountains in the distance, a sea far to the left and the entire castle was surrounded by green fields dotted with trees, bushes, plants and flowers. After a moment of staring he realized that all the foliage was magical which was surprising since he saw so many magical creatures roaming around feeding on the grass, plants, flowers and bushes. He saw several Baku, Thestrals, unicorns of various color, owls in the trees, fire horses, a couple of hippogriffs and many more which he didn't know the names of, all of which should have consumed all the magical foliage a long time ago. "Magnificent no?" Rahkesh startled, he hadn't realized Namach had come down the massive staircase on the right, hadn't realized there even was a staircase actually. Everything about this estate was massive, as if it were designed for a giant, or by a giant.

Turning towards the ancient Rahkesh could see what Sygra had meant, Namach looked like himself again. Handsome as ever with his long black hair that looked like it could be made of shadow, chiseled jaw, silver eyes giving off a slight glow. He was wearing his long crimson robes over his shoulders with a black button down shirt that was halfway unbuttoned down his chest, black silk pants and mean looking black combat boots. The ancient was also decked out in bloodmetal, earrings, necklace, armbands, shinguards, he even had a thin gold bloodmetal crown around his head with swirls of crimson red and runes all over it.

"It's pretty incredible." Rahkesh agreed. "You look better." He observed.

"Yes, quite. You having finally transformed you've been giving off a large amount of excess magic, to be expected of course, the bloodmetal vines absorbed it and transferred some of it to me in way of life energy. On top of that I have gone and drank my stores of my blood and that has given me some energy as well, I don't think I can afford to expend it all on the demons any time soon but I'll be okay for a while. How do you feel?" Namach raised an eyebrow.

"Powerful, I feel like I can do anything really. I've tried to reign in my magic but this is the best I can do." Rahkesh told him dolefully, Namach laughed and he was glad the ancient was back to normal.

"Yes, well, that makes sense. You_ are_ lucky however, because of that dragons blood your cells won't die. The last mortal to transform into a Lich quickly became a living skeleton, not a pretty sight mind you. The elves had a hell of a time dispatching of him." He chuckled and got a somewhat wistful look on his face. Rahkesh, realizing he is now technically dead wondered about something.

"I won't have to drink blood to survive will I?" He really didn't like the prospect of that, he didn't mind that the vampires did it so long as it wasn't his but he _really_ didn't want to drink blood. _Gross. _

Namach laughed at the face he was making while thinking of that. "Of course not, you're not a vampire. The last Lich, as I said, turned into a skeleton so he didn't eat. Technically I think you could survive without eating anything but I suspect you will still eat normally as since your cells won't die they'll need the nutrition." He smiled down at Rahkesh reassuringly. "You will need all sorts of training to learn to control yourself though." He couldn't tell for sure but Namach looked sort of giddy at this prospect, this gave him a doomed sense of foreboding. What did Namach mean by all sorts of training? He didn't get to ask because suddenly they were back in Namachs rooms at Akren. Rahkesh had to suppress the urge to vomit, he still hated how smooth Namachs form of teleportation is. "Your friends as well as a great deal of others saw the fancy show you put on out there so your transformation is by no means secret, on the other hand I can't imagine anyone will fancy trying to attack you." Namach chuckled as he walked from the sitting room into his bedroom, Rahkesh decided to head straight for his own rooms and avoid the attention he was undoubtedly going to get.

Luckily he passed no one in the halls and subsequently got no attention but walking into his rooms he saw Silas sitting on his couch next to his feisty panther waiting for him. Nuri yowled, dove off the couch and stuck his head underneath it, Silas' reaction was a bit different, he simply stared, the only movement was his jaw dropping. Rahkesh sighed, closed his door wandlessly and transfigured his plush red arm chair into a super fluffy and comfortable red bean bag chair. Sitting down he turned back to Silas who was still gaping like a fish, he just waited while Sygra uncoiled from him and went to her cage for some rest. Finally Silas spoke "Y-you you're... you're a-"

"Lich." Rahkesh finished for him, Silas stared for a moment longer, a series of emotions going through his face before bursting out into genuine laughter. Now it was Rahkeshs turn to stare. "Don't glare at me thunder, this is exactly the kind of shit that could only happen to you." Silas pointed out while still laughing, Rahkesh supposed only the people who really knew him would laugh so much about it, Hermione would probably scream and curse him, if Ron was still alive he would've pointed at him and screamed like a girl before fainting. "Daray is going to love this." Silas pointed out and laughed again at the face he made at the prospect, but that reminded him, he had to figure out how to execute his new prank idea on Daray. If he could get the supplies and do it right it would be a whole lot of fun.

"You want to go shopping?" He asked Silas, Silas raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah sure, where to?" He replied getting up.

"Shop in Diagon Alley, I've got an idea for a prank on Daray but I'll need a couple things." He said with a sinister smile, Silas chuckled and they headed for the stables. It was a truly beautiful day outside, the sun high in the sky, the snow capped mountains ringing the valleys glistening white. It had just snowed recently so all the trees and plants still had a covering of fresh snow, he caught sight of several eagles and a phoenix flying through the air. Half way down the trail he noticed a dragon sleeping peacefully on the ledge of one of the higher mountains, steam coming from it's nostrils with every breath. He thought things would be different since he was now technically dead but if anything it made him appreciate the life around him even more, he took a deep breath of the crisp, cold fresh air and realized he hadn't been breathing. _That's weird. _He thought to himself, this would take some getting used to. He glanced over towards Silas and saw that he was staring at him, Silas noticed and cleared his throat. "So Diagon Alley, that's in Britain isn't it?"

"Yes, it's pretty nice but not so different from other magical communities." He responded realizing that Silas had never been there, when they raided the ministry Silas had taken an entrance outside of Diagon Alley and when they left they didn't exactly have time for shopping given the plague and all that. He then realized that Diagon Alley might not be open since most people had left or died or were hidden from the demons but he really didn't want to be at Akren right now, he wasn't comfortable with his new form yet and certainly couldn't hide it.

Apparating into the Alley he was surprised that only a few stores were closed down, there were people coming and going and although a lot less than there were before Voldemort or the demons it was still kind of busy. Within moments of their arrival everyone within sight froze and turned to look at him, Silas started laughing a second later which garnered more strange looks. _Maybe this wasn't the best idea. _Rahkesh sent the thought to Silas telepathically.

_No, no it wasn't. _He sent back still laughing, turned and walked into Honeydukes, Rahkesh followed thinking that a chocolate frog did sound kind of good. Honeydukes was exactly as it always was if maybe a little quieter than normal but he couldn't judge if that was because of the demons or because everyone inside looked to him as if he were magically assaulting them. As a young couple dragged their son from the store in a rush he decided that he just doesn't care. "Ever had a chocolate frog?" Silas turned from looking at the gag-gifts to see the small tin box with an animated chocolate frog inside of it that Rahkesh was holding up.

"That's neat, it's chocolate?" He asked taking the tin and turning it about, fascinated as the frog looked around through the small window in terror.

"Yeah, pretty good t..." He trailed off as he heard a deep booming laughter coming from the entrance, he turned and stared as a man at least twice as big as any average man with a huge head of brown curly hair, a long scraggly beard and hands bigger than baseball mitts walked into the store.

"Woah, is that a half giant?" Silas asked with a look of awe pointed towards the big burly man, Rahkesh didn't answer him as he had just noticed the person who had walked in with the half giant. It was Hagrid and headmistress McGonagall. Shit. If McGonagall started talking to him then his secret identity was as good as gone, Hagrid might not be all that bright but he could probably figure that one out pretty easily. "It is! I Have to go talk to him." Silas said striding towards Hagrid.

"Wait! No..." Rahkesh replied in a hoarse whisper that Silas ignored.

"You're a half giant." He said to Hagrid in way of greeting. _Smooth, _he thought to himself as he slowly approached behind Silas.

"I am what I am, an' I'm not ashamed." Hagrid replied sternly, clearly offended by the statement. He looked back and forth between the two for a moment and said "Yeh two are vampires aren't yeh?" He grumbled. "I already told yer kind yeh ain't gettin' my blood!" Rahkesh was offended, he didn't want his blood but he also wasn't a vampire, McGonagall was staring at him like she couldn't believe her eyes but she hadn't hinted at all that she knew him which he was grateful for.

"As much as I'd love to have some of your blood I just wanted to meet you, there's been a lot of half giants that have done great things and your natural resistance to offensive magic is something everyone wishes they had." Silas replied, Rahkesh had never heard of any famous half giants but he didn't doubt it was true, at one point Hagrid had taken on a group of ministry cronies large enough to take down a small dragon and all their spells just bounced off.

"Indeed, this one's magic is almost suffocating and you haven't even noticed." McGonagall put in giving Rahkesh a look he couldn't read making him even more uncomfortable.

"Yes well, pleasant to meet you both." Rahkesh said turning towards the door and hoping Silas would follow. Stepping outside he took a deep breath and tried to calm himself, he just wanted to get what he needed and leave, he didn't want all these people staring at him and he didn't want to see anymore people he knew. He heard Hagrid laugh and turned to see him engaged in conversation with Silas and looking like buddies. He decided to do his shopping without him and walked towards Knockturn Alley.

Having found what he was looking for in a shady little shop called Libby's that sold everything from ratty bloody robes to shitty wands he cast a quick illusion and stowed it in his earring. Figuring that he could probably find Silas and Hagrid in The Leaky Cauldron Rahkesh turned back towards Diagon Alley bumping immediately into headmistress McGonagall, she quickly cast anti-eavesdropping charms, gave him a steely look and said "Explain." He quickly reinforced her charms and sighed.

"Where to begin..." He trailed off.

"How about with becoming a vampire or _why_ you became a vampire." She replied with a disappointed teacher tone.

"I'm _not_ a vampire but I am an undead, I'm a Lich." He said disconcertingly and quickened his pace a little, McGonagall grabbed his arm to turn him towards her but as soon as she touched him she yelped and jerked back. He hadn't meant to electrocute her but she looked pissed all the same.

"I thought those weren't real." She sounded a little worried which didn't match the look of fury she was giving him.

"Yeah well, I've always been a bit of a magical anomaly haven't I?" He replied sarcastically, to her credit she didn't laugh at him, instead she looked at him as if truly worried for a moment before continuing towards Diagon Alley. She didn't say another word the entire way to The Leaky Cauldron.

XXXXX

"You have to immerse yourself in your own illusions, you'll have to set them up beforehand and then immerse yourself in them. It is tricky and difficult but it is just mind magic." Namach told Rahkesh with an amused smile. "I am a big fan of this." He continued with a chuckle pulling a small poloroid photo out of his desk drawer and showing it to him, he laughed in response.

"Daray thought he got all of those back."

"Not this one." Namach kept up the sinister smile. "A small enclosed space should do nicely, set up the illusions and then go through them yourself, your rooms should do." He had asked Namach for his advise about how to pull off the prank he wanted to pull on Daray and given that Daray was still helping his sister and Cyala now was the perfect time, he'd been gone for a while so Rahkesh imagined he didn't have much time so he set to work.

Turning out all the lights, clearing away the floor in his living room and casting privacy spells were the first steps, then he created illusion after illusion until he had about thirty of them. He anchored them to the diamond he had gotten from the vampire who attacked him and put it in his ear before diving into his own illusions. Knowing it was all an illusion made it hilarious to him but if it hadn't been then it wouldn't have been very fun, at several points he added lightning to the illusions, he wasn't sure if it would actually electrocute Daray being in an illusion but it would at least scare him. The animals and beasts he put into the illusion probably wouldn't be able to harm him either so they were also meant to scare. Reaching the end of his illusions he exited laughing evilly, he pulled the illusions off of the diamond earring and walked over to his new pensieve that he had bought earlier in the day. It was made of silver with a gold rim around the top that was studded with diamonds, rubies and emeralds and the base was a crystal pyramid that was detachable and filled with water and magical glowing moss that cast a dim green light around the room. He removed his memories of the illusions and dropped them into the pensieve, he then went into the pensieve and cast an illusion to remove himself from the memories, having done that he left the pensieve, cast an illusion on it to make it appear as his couch, stepped back and laughed evilly. "This will be _so_ much fun."

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**Thank you for reading, reviews and criticism welcome! Bet you didn't see that for his transformation! I originally wanted to wait a little longer before he transformed but there's so much I'm trying to put into the third installment that it needed to be done now. Things are going to start getting pretty interesting very very soon and Rahkesh needed his new form for most of it, also the pranks between Rahkesh and Daray are going to start getting better and more frequent.** **I will also be keeping chapters between 9-12k words, I hope everyone is okay with this. **

**Anyway, thank you and I hope you enjoyed!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five --**

"There is a great many things that can go wrong with necromancy, one of the most common things that do go wrong is what?" Namach asked pacing the front of the room, decked out in bloodmetal and fancy clothes as always. He was also still wearing the long crimson cloak, he'd changed many times over the last several days but had kept the red cloak over his shoulders consistently. Rahkesh wondered if that was for identification since he had a rogue golem, actually that made a lot of sense.

"Most basic mistakes will end up summoning a zombie which will attack anyone and everyone it can." Silas replied sitting to his right and looking very interested, they were all very excited because they would be learning to do a dead summoning soon. Well, first they would have to successfully summon an inferi but once they proved they could do that they would be allowed to do a dead summoning. They would have to do it twice, once using black necromancy and once using white. He wasn't super excited to do the white but he was really looking forward to doing the black summoning, he supposed that was probably a twisted thought since black necromancy required a lot of self inflicted pain, however white required torturing someone else and was less stable so he wasn't as twisted as the members of the white order right?

"Very good." Namach purred. "Remember that, it will be on your tests." He walked over to his black board and turned to face the class. "Now can anyone tell me how to summon an inferi?" He looked as if he didn't expect anyone to know but Rahkesh had always been an overachiever.

"You cast a certain spell through the corpse to summon back a piece of their soul." He said, certain that he was right. The night before he had gone to see Namach and the ancient had hinted that they would be starting this today so he had gone back to his rooms and read a few books on necromancy summonings, after setting up his trap for Daray of course. Daray had returned that morning only about fifteen minutes before necromancy class so he hadn't gotten into his rooms yet, but soon, very soon.

"Yes and no, if you were to do only that you would create yourself a zombie. Does anyone know the step he left out?" He was disappointed, he had thought that was all there was to an inferi but then again the book he had read about inferi was translated from another language so it would make sense that a few things were lost in translation. Just as Namach was about to continue the classroom door burst open. "TRISTAN!" Nvara yelled sending every student in the room to tears from her voice magics. Striding into the room she glanced up to her left at Rahkesh _Jesus Christ! _She said in his mind, loudly, making him cringe. Nvara saw him flinch and her mouth opened just a little, she turned back towards the ancient. "May I have a word?" She practically growled, turned and marched back out the door. Namach sighed, dropped and shook his head before following her out, door closing behind him.

"You said you would tell me." She sounded angrier than Rahkesh had ever heard her.

"I didn't have much of a heads up either, I've been a little distracted with my own issues. When I had arrived he had already transformed, I can put what I have in a pensieve if you'd like to see it."

"I wanted to see it in _person_ Tristan. I have felt his power since he returned, does he even know the extent of what he can do?"

"Not even close, I intend to train him but he needs time to adjust. If he knew..." Namachs words were cut off as Rahkesh was ripped back to the present, someone was yelling his name and shaking him. Before he could recognize what was going on his instincts took over. BOOM! "GAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" It was Daray, he was shaking Rahkesh and yelling his name to get his attention and now he was flipping through the air shrieking like a little girl and wreathed in lightning. _Oops_. He thought to himself as Daray crash landed on Namachs desk knocking all his things off of it in a crash. "Mo-motherfu-motherfucker!" He bellowed at Rahkesh, the entire class laughing as he twitched from the remains of the lightning. Rahkesh quickly turned his attention back towards the door but was blocked by the anti-eavesdropping spells on it. _Were those there the whole time? _He wondered.

"You sadistic asshole!" Daray was still sparking and twitching as he tried to get up off of Namachs desk, the door opened and Namach walked in. He looked at Daray, looked up at Rahkesh then back to Daray. "KAAAAAHHHHHHHRRRRGGGGHHHH!" He banished Daray off his desk back towards his own where he landed with another loud crash snapping his desk into pieces, Daray quickly got to his feet, brushed his shirt off and ripped a piece of wood out of his shoulder. He turned to Rahkesh with a murderous glare and stuck the bloody piece of wood in his face. "_Fuck_ you." He growled before wandlessly repairing his desk and sitting down.

"So, where were we?" Namach asked with a smirk as he too repaired his desk wandlessly.

"Inferi." A student said still chuckling at the chaos.

"Right, to summon an inferius you must cast a spell through the corpse to the other side to summon a piece of it's soul back into it but you must attach a tiny piece of your own dead soul to it so that it will do what you wish. Since that piece of your soul is already dead when the inferius dies again that tiny sliver of your soul will be unaffected. Furthermore since a piece of the inferius' soul is summoned back into it it will prevent anyone from being able to read your mind or soul through the inferius. This is why the first thing we will be doing is to kill a tiny piece of your soul, a very miniscule fragment, this will be very difficult and at least one of you will die performing this step. It happens every year, at least one student decides to go forth in this class when they do not have the capability to perform this step. If you do not feel capable, if you have any doubt or your instincts tell you not to, I urge you to drop the class. I say this every year, it is better to drop the class than die.

The process of killing a piece of your soul will be done using bloodmagic, it will be easier for the vampire students since they are technically already dead. One of you has already preformed this step and will not need to do this but I urge this student to pay close attention anyways for this process will be on more than one written test." Namach glanced at Rahkesh before walking over to and leaning against his desk. "This will not be like any bloodmagic ritual any of you have preformed, you will have to create a soul sucking vortex and toss a fragment through before carefully closing the vortex and summoning the remainder of your soul back around you. Though if done right you will only lose a very tiny fragment you will still immediately feel extremely weak and will continue to for a week or so, depending on how much you kill depends on how long you will feel weak for. If you fail to close the vortex your soul will be sucked into death and you will die, I cannot stop any of you from performing this ritual but if I feel you are not ready I will tell you so."

XXXX

"What the fuck was that all about?" Daray asked Rahkesh as they left class, Silas laughed.

"He doesn't have very much control over his magic since he transformed, when we get back to my rooms I'll put the memories I have from the battle into a pensieve for you." He told him with a sheepish smile.

"I'm still offended that you went and had your final transformation without me." Daray whined looking disappointed.

"With your animagus he probably would've killed you accidentally, the estimate is that he killed eight allies when he transformed." Silas attempted to comfort Daray a little, he glanced at Rahkesh who looked a little offended and continued. "I mean, he killed nine and a half thousand demons and obliterated the portal in around two minutes flat so it's fine, we expected to lose more anyway."

"How many of ours?" Daray asked clearly referring to Akren alumni and students.

"Only two, one was a warewolf alumni that was probably too old to be fighting anyway and the other was Tyler." Silas informed him.

"But what about the life crystals? I know Tyler had one." Daray puzzled.

"I'm not sure about the alumni but Tyler took some gruesome injuries that she used a little of it for but it didn't matter anyway, the way the demons shredded her and tore her apart even a fully charged life crystal wouldn't have been able to save her." They walked in silence for a minute.

"So you're a _what_?" Daray asked looking Rahkesh up and down with fascination.

Rahkesh groaned. "A Lich." He said tiredly, he really didn't feel like explaining this a million times.

"And here I thought you were just impersonating a vampire. Don't Liches turn into skeletons? You look pretty healthy to me, maybe you _are_ just a vampire and you don't know it." Rahkesh appreciated the disbelief but unfortunately he was pretty sure he was a Lich.

"No, because of the dragons blood my cells don't die so this is as much of a skeleton as I'll ever be, at least until the elves find out." He replied sadly.

"Well what kind of powers come with that? Do you have super strength? That's always a common one." Rahkesh hadn't thought of that, hadn't tested it to find out either, he turned to Daray with a confused look.

"What?" Daray asked slowly, a little apprehensive. Rahkesh threw a punch right into his abdomen. "GUHH!" Daray gasped as he flew back ten feet into the wall with a satisfying thump.

"Huh, I guess I do." Both he and Silas started laughing as Daray picked himself up.

"Oh but this is great news!" Daray weazed. "This means I can stop holding back when we fight."

"Ha! You wish you were holding back when we fight." He chuckled.

Daray launched himself at Rahkesh and tackled him to the floor. Rahkesh banished Daray off. His magics added a bolt of lightning and Daray was blasted into the ceiling with a burst of light, he fell back onto Rahkesh and started throwing punches but Rahkesh called on his defensive bloodmagics to block them, he could feel Daray landing the punches but his magics took the force away and he felt almost nothing. Silently he cast an imperious curse and was surprised that it worked.

Daray froze as he felt his magics seize, Daray began punching himself in the face. Darays nose broke and started gushing blood and Rahkesh realized he had very little control over what he was doing so he pulled his magics back into himself. Daray was staring at him in shock, mouth open, eyes wide and blood gushing down his front. "_Dude_." Was all he could say. Rahkesh picked himself up off the floor scared by the fact that he yet again didn't know his own strength and turned to go get some lunch, as he rounded the corner at the end of the hallway he was frozen in place, unable to move his eyes even. The two vampires paused and faced Rahkesh, Silas opened his mouth to say something but before he could Namach appeared before them. "Excuse us." Namach told them and suddenly Rahkesh was standing before Namach in Namachs gigantic estate. "Nvara has demanded it and so it is time. You must be trained to control yourself and I am one of very few strong enough to withstand a mistake so for the next two weeks you will reside here and train." Namach told him.

"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" He asked and got a chuckle in response from the ancient. It was weird, he was both excited and very very nervous about training with Namach.

XXXXX

"Now firstly you need to learn to control your strength." Namach said standing off to the side, they were in the first basement level of the ancients giant estate. It appeared to be a sort of gym with everything you would typically find in a gym towards the entrance, all of which looked unused, they were towards the back where there was some more interesting equipment. There was a full size boxing ring, a big wrestling mat, two pickup trucks bolted to a giant metal pole, in one corner stood a bunch of skeletons just waiting to be animated, there were cabinets full of staves, knives, swords, guns, there was even in one corner was a pair of shoes that were glowing very faintly next to a very large very heavy looking metal door. It was black and silver, had enough jewels on it to buy a country and radiated containment magics. Of all the crazy equipment and piles of very dangerous things they were standing in front of one of those arcade punching machines that measure how hard you can punch, however this one looked like it was built for Hercules. It was solid steel with glowing golden runes all over it, it had rivets all over it, it was bolted to the ground with bolts as thick as his arm and the bag was a glowing red metal ball with small dents in it from previous use. "You want me to hit this?" Rahkesh asked dubiously.

"Hit it as hard as you can." Namach said with a smirk, Rahkesh feeling a little uneasy complied and hit the thing as hard as he could, with a flash of light and a small burst of thunder the ball swung back and up through the top of the machine with a loud bang and lodged in the ceiling thirty feet above with a faint hiss. Namach burst into laughter. "Perhaps we should teach you to control your magic a little better first, you didn't only punch that with your first but with your magic as well." Namach told him, Rahkesh growled in response. One would normally think having so much more power would be great but he just couldn't control it and it was irritating him.

"Your magic is much the same if maybe just a bit more like your thunderbird form, wild and untamed." Namach said thoughtfully.

"You need to calm your magic and subdue it, this will take a few hours of meditation." Namach said as they teleported into possibly the most beautiful meditation chamber Rahkesh had ever seen. The floor looked to be made of gold and silver with the gold and silver swirling around each other intricately across the floor and in the middle of the swirls where the gold and silver would touch there were huge inlaid diamonds in the floor that seemed to give off gold and silver light, not too bright and certainly not sharp but enough to illuminate the massive chamber. The pillars around the edges of the chamber were made of black and white marble with rubies and emeralds wrapping around the top and bottom, and the ceiling... "Woah." Rahkesh said catching his breath, the ceiling was a writhing, swirling, living mess of red-gold bloodmetal giving off masses of soothing mind magic.

"Follow your instincts, meditate and focus on calming your magic." The ancient said with a smirk before striding out of the chamber. Rahkesh walked to the middle of the chamber and took a few breaths, allowing his magics and the magics of the chamber to get a feel for each other. After a few minutes he stopped thinking and set to work, he pulled out his earring trunk and removed his bloodmagic knives. Setting aside all but the one he made himself he cut his hand and started on the runes, drawing rune after rune on the floor of the chamber followed by the pillars until finally they were complete. He stepped to the middle of the chamber and knelt before chanting a spell he didn't know he knew, didn't know what he was saying even. After the incantation was complete the thunderbird and basilisk both woke, his magics activated and hummed and the mind magics in the chamber sang along with it. Rahkesh closed his eyes and began to meditate, after about an hour he felt a magical shift and opened his eyes only to be surprised and exuberant about what he saw. He could see and feel all the magics around him, could see his magics in gold, green, black and silver flowing around the chamber and through himself in steady smooth flows. He could see the slow moving, smooth and soft gold and silver mindmagics flowing around his and assisting the soothing of his magics.

Continuing to follow his instincts he imagined his magics tightening and constricting around him until he was wrapped in a tight bubble of his own magic and his magic complied. Closing his eyes he sighed. Now that he had successfully reigned in his magic for the first time in way too long he felt good, really good. _Almost normal_. He hissed in parseltongue, he missed being able to control himself, most people would criticize him and tell him he was crazy for missing being mortal but he rather liked it. He stayed in the chamber for a total of six hours soothing and controlling his magic, he still had no idea of the extent of what it could do but for the first time in a while he felt he had control. Leaving the chamber and washing it clean he turned to find Namach fidgeting with a shard of bloodmetal and smirking at him. "I suspect you will have to make that a regular thing for a while, when this war is over you will definitely have to learn to make your own mind magic candles."

"I would rather like to learn how to make those bloodmagic vines." Rahkesh replied staring through the one way window at the twisting glowing vines covering the ceiling of the chamber. Namach chuckled.

"In due time."

Back in the ancients basement Namach led him to the corner with the skeletons. "Being a Lich you will not be performing necromancy the same as your classmates, not much is known about Liches, even _I _am not sure how they do it, but one of the few things that is known is that they can move in and out of death with ease. They can cast spells from either side or both sides simultaneously. You should be able to move into death with a single thought and call upon these skeletons to do your bidding. Have you discovered this yet?" Rahkesh thought back to his mind control experiment with Silas, remembering the dark nothingness his mind had wondered into.

"Yes I think so." He told the ancient and received a fanged grin in return.

"Go ahead then." The ancient told him, Rahkesh turned to the skeletons, closed his eyes and imagined them all taking a step forward, he opened his eyes and... nothing happened. "Now that you've reigned in your magic a little it will take more focus and a little more coaxing to have it do your bidding." Namach told him from the corner, watching eagerly.

"I wasn't able to find very much information about Liches in the library." He replied, it was one of the first things he did when he got back to Akren after his transformation. When Namach had told him what he had turned into he didn't really know what he was, which told him just how bad it was. Vampires frequently had to go killing everyone to control their population, warewolves were very strict about turning people, the ones who weren't typically died brutally unless they were powerful enough that no one wanted to try, but still they were plentiful and elves were relatively scarce to the uneducated but to the educated you knew that there were probably trillions of them across the galaxies. The Akren library really had almost nothing on Liches, all he could find was that one had lived thousands of years ago and that he had summoned an army of the dead to help him fight off the elves. It was unsuccessful and he died brutally, losing his magic and soul to the elves but he had apparently put up a good fight.

"That's because there isn't much known, a trained Lich is a force to be reckoned with and the elves don't take well to worthy opponents. Focus." He replied shortly. Rahkesh thought about that.

"I thought you said the elves wanted worthy opponents, 'They desire equals.' You said they wanted worthy allies." He replied in confusion.

"Yes, they do want worthy allies, they don't want allies that can measure up to their power. The elves like to say they aren't afraid of anything, this is not true, what they mean is that they are not afraid of anything currently in existence. Something, or someone, who is capable of ever reaching a point of beating their best, that scares them greatly. Being as militaristic as they are their first reaction is to kill it or them before they are too dangerous. I do not think the elves know of your existence yet but once they do the more pressing concern will be them." Namach replied slowly, as if being very careful not to say the wrong thing.

Rahkesh thought about this a moment before getting back to training. closing his eyes he focused on the feeling of weightlessness he had in the mind control experiment, the darkness that was so dark it swallowed the light of his lightning. He focused so hard his ears popped but nothing changed, after what felt like an hour he sighed, opened his eyes and shrugged at the professor standing off to his right. Namach knit his eyebrows and thought for a moment. "Perhaps it is different, being a mortal you weren't capable of living in the dead realm, you must find the barrier between life and death and cross it but it will not be as you remember it. As with advanced bloodmagic this is very individualized and I cannot offer much guidance. Most of your magic is the same as it was before and you can generally control that very well, being a Lich you now have much more death magic capabilities and that is what you must be trained on. Your magic capabilities all around have been increased, you are _much_ more in touch with your magic now and thus will be able to do much more than you could before but before you had very little innate death magic capability." Namach told him. "Try again."

After a few minutes of focusing so hard he started to sweat he felt a shift and opened his eyes to see his magics swirling around and through him in vibrant colors. He saw a lot of gold magic, like sparkling gold dust, white magic that looked much like a small sparkling cloud, a small amount of emerald green so bright and vibrant it looked like liquified emeralds and he saw black magic so dark it looked like void. _That must be the death magic. _He thought to himself. He hissed with pleasure and the emerald green magic swirling around him glowed brighter and expanded, _and that must be parselmagic._

He turned his attention to Namach and saw a tight mass of purple and black magic shadowing him, so thick he could hardly see the ancients body through it, in fact the only reason he could was because the ancients body was a glowing gold mass of bloodmagic runes. He then focused on the skeletons and sent some of the black magic around him at them, at the touch of it a couple of the skeletons turned to dust. "Interesting." Namach practically whispered in the corner. "Try the spell." He continued referring to the incantation used in summoning inferi, Rahkesh had read up on it already, eagerly trying to learn necromancy. He started up the chanting and instantly black magic started swirling around the skeletons, he could sense a score of soul fragments around them too. He pulled his knife from it's sheath and began to make small cuts on his hands, arms and torso. As he did the score of soul fragments separated from the black death magic and slowly found their way into the skeletons skulls.

"Good." The ancient purred. "Very good." Rahkesh stopped to wonder if Namach could see what he was seeing, he glanced over at him and saw that his eyes were glowing a bright silver. He turned his attention back to the skeletons and summoned the death magic and soul fragments into the skeletons bodies, instantly they came alive, and started attacking everything in sight. Many started attacking each other, a couple went for the boxing ring like they were going to box each other, one went and started attacking the water fountain and a couple went for the ancient who was laughing so hard he couldn't stand up straight. For a moment Rahkesh thought they were actually going to attack Namach because he was too busy laughing to defend himself but as soon as they got close to him they crumbled to dust.

After he finished laughing, though still chuckling, the ancient turned towards Rahkesh expectantly. _Oh great, he wants me to fix this._ He sighed and turned towards the mess of animated bones, he knew a killing curse wouldn't work, they were already dead. Had he had control of them he could've just cut the spell and they would have died but he did it wrong and therefore had no control. Not entirely sure what to do he just decided to summon the death magic back to him, it worked and the skeletons dropped into piles of bones but the additional death magic made him feel exhausted as soon as it joined his magic. "That might have killed you if you were still mortal, the right way to do it is to reverse the spell and do it backwards. disposing the soul fragments and death magic. Do you know what you did wrong?"

"Yes." Rahkesh replied realizing that he forgot to add his dead soul fragment to the inferi in order to assert control. Namach nodded and chuckled again before waving his hand at the skeletons who responded by righting themselves back onto their feet.

Rahkesh made the final cut on his chest and called upon his fragment of dead soul, summoning it to separate into a score of pieces and accompany the other bits of dead soul inside the skeletons skulls. As his fragment of soul obeyed and he commanded the death magic to join the souls he felt a huge surge of energy and magic and the skeletons all exploded sending pieces of bone flying everywhere, one rather large piece of femur went straight through his chest and out his back with a sickening THUMP and he fell to his knees. When he looked down to see the massive hole it had created he saw a bright knot of neon green magic around it, acting on instinct he hissed a healing spell and the wound closed almost instantly, faster than vampire or warewolf healing even, it didn't heal by itself like a vampire would and it only bled a little but it closed from his parselmagic healing spell much faster than it should have. He closed his eyes and crossed back over the life and death barrier. When he opened his eyes Namach was standing in front of him studying him like a puzzle.

"Wha-"

"Have you gone into your parselmagics since you transformed?" Namach cut him off.

"No, I've been a little preoccupied trying to control myself." he admitted, "Do you think my parselmagic is fixed?" He asked. "I thought once it was broken it couldn't be fixed." He continued confused. Since he transformed he'd been putting almost all of his concentration on not killing anyone with his heightened magic and newfound death magic. It wanted out, it wanted to smite everyone and when he was at Akren it was almost completely out of control. After the magic he had just used it was a little out of control now even, though not as bad as before. He would have to return to Namachs mind magic chamber to reign himself in again.

"It'll get easier to keep control the more you practice." Namach told him causing Rahkesh to rebuild his mental shields, he hadn't realized just how much control he had lost. "Perhaps it could be your wand." He mused. "Dyalnos is exclusively elven, we know they're capable of great feats of magic but we don't know why. The leading theory is that they are just much more magical than any other sentient magical life form and that very well might be it but, it would also make sense that the materials that they use for wands and staffs would increase their capabilities.

You grew that tree from your blood and it is strongly tied to you, as we discussed those trees aren't actually sentient but they are damn close. It would be feasible to believe that it could enhance your magic." The ancient thought for a moment before turning to examine the mess.

"What happened?" He moaned as he got to his feet and checked again where the hole in his chest had been just to make sure it wasn't still there.

"I haven't the slightest idea." The ancient smiled at him. "I felt a surge of soul magic and then they all exploded, if I had to guess I'd say that once your soul fragments came into contact with those of the inferi your soul fragments consumed the ones of the inferi and the sudden increase in soul magic destabilized the necromancy and resulted in a catastrophic failure." He was still smiling, why did that unnerve Rahkesh so much?

"Okay... So?" He prodded the vampire.

"So let's try it again but this time expect the surge of magic and try to contain it." Namach told him turning to walk away while simultaneously waving his hand through the air and summoning another score of skeletons. This time he expected the surge in soul magic and just before they all detonated again he saw flashes of images, a little girl on a swing, an old man sitting by a hospital bed, a robed figure pointing a gun at him and most unnerving was an extremely sinister smile on the cold milky white face of Voldemort as he held his wand out towards Rahkeshs' face.

Rahkesh woke up on the huge comfortable bed he had been on after he first transformed. _You left me at the school. _Sygra hissed on his chest, he picked up his head and looked at his familiar who looked angrier than ever, just as he was about to respond she lunged forward faster than he could follow and sank her fangs into his neck. Pain surged through his body and he screamed, his bloodmagic responded, his wrists and neck burst open and sent the poison flying out of him. Banishing the snake off of him he jumped to his feet and glared her down. _You don't listen, I've asked nicely, I've scolded and I've told you not to leave me behind. Now whenever you don't listen you get punished. _She hissed up at him from the floor, he stared at her for a moment and then laughed.

_Yes, fine mother. _He hissed back, she lunged again but he caught her and put her around his neck a little reluctantly. He was still a little nauseous but he couldn't tell if that was from his familiars temper tantrum or from the necromancy he failed at. Sygra constricted a little tight around his throat and he knew she'd be angry for a while. _How did you get here? _He choked out pulling at her coils.

_The vampire. _She replied shortly, rather than trying to get her to talk he decided it would probably be easier to get answers out of Namach. Finding the ancient proved difficult, Rahkesh explored the estate for over an hour and hadn't gone into the same room twice, the place seemed to just keep going endlessly. Finally he decided to try a different tactic and sent out his mind. Stumbling forward from the surge of dark magic behind him he realized Namach was right behind him. Rahkesh rebuilt his mental shields and turned around, Namach was wearing a silver and black suit etched with red bloodmetal lines, his eyes were glowing faint silver as always and he had a sinister fanged smile on his face. "You took off the cloak?" He observed and took another step backwards remembering the rogue golem.

"Yes well, it doesn't go well with the suit. Come, the demons have just opened the biggest portal yet and there's no one to guard it. They're escaping into the world and we've been called to hold it off for now." Summoning his things Rahkesh started to wonder if this was actually the ancient.

"What happened last night?" He asked casually, hoping that the golem wouldn't know what him and Namach had been doing.

"Nothing important." Namach replied as he teleported them both to the middle of nowhere. The first thing Rahkesh noticed was that the ancient, or rather his golem wasn't next to him anymore. The next thing he noticed were the demons, he was surrounded by demons and before he could do anything they all roared. _Thousands _Sygra hissed silently. The ground shook and Rahkesh turned to his right to see four of the biggest arch demons he'd ever seen, practically skyscrapers they blew so much fire into the sky the temperature rose enough that he instantly started sweating and he felt his hair start crackling as if on fire. More roars sounded from behind him and he turned to see scorcerer demons appearing from fire. Continually. _That must be where the portal is. _Sygra hissed. _Shall we? _

_I want you to escape, use your magic to go through the ground and escape. Find Namach and tell him what happened here, the real ancient will be wearing a crimson cloak. _He replied to her, she turned her head towards him with as much of a scowl as a snake could give.

_What did I tell you? _She hissed back.

_Sygra-_

_No. No hero shit. I don't fancy having to find a new master, if you're going to die I'm going to die with you. _With that she roared back and transformed. The demons charged in and Rahkesh transformed as well summoning uncontrolled lightning to kill as many as possible, with so many demons, all of which coming after him the thunderbird would be very effective and possibly his greatest weapon. He flapped his immense wings throwing death lightning at the demons in front of him while taking to the air. He felt a familiar magic and connected to it, glancing over he saw Sygra wrapped in lightning, throwing immense bolts of it at her attackers. The winds picked up and started tossing the demons around like toys making their air attacks difficult. Rahkesh caught the sense of foreign magic and instead of blocking it he drew it into his own, out of the corner of his eye he saw a sorcerer demon vaporize, the particles vacuumed towards Rahkesh. Turning corpreal he summoned death into his storm turning the clouds black as void. He felt another presence just before it struck, an arch demon smacked him right out of the sky. With a ground shaking thunderclap he collided with the ground and was instantly overwhelmed with demons except once they got too close to him they either dropped dead or turned to ash and for a second he thought he'd be just fine. As he went to take to the air again an arch demon landed over him and roared shaking the earth beneath his feet. _A different approach then_ he thought as his limbs disappeared and he grew in size. _Something is different _he observed as he finished his transformation into his basilisk form.

Glancing down he noticed that he had gigantic black, red and gold feathers wreathing his form, he could sense storms in them just like his thunderbird feathers but more. One gigantic feather held enough electricity to kill the whole world, enough electricity to power the world for the rest of time. A sorcerer demon landed in front of him and started casting spell after spell, every last one either being absorbed or deflected off his feathers. Rahkesh hissed in pleasure and as fast as lightning he ate the sorcerer demon and all hell broke loose. Demons went flying everywhere, Rahkesh and Sygra chasing, killing and eating every demon they could. After what seemed like hours Rahkesh started to get tired, Sygra had transformed back into her snake form with many injuries that he had healed as much as possible while fighting for their lives, she was coiled around his neck now that he was back on human form and spitting acidic venom in the faces of the demons that came up behind them.

For a moment he thought he was going to win, he'd vaporized the arch demons, disintegrated so many sorcerer demons he lost count and annihilated everything else in his path but despite his transformation he still didn't have the stamina to take on a whole portal by himself. He had fought as a thunderbird for as long as he could then fought as a thunderbird/basilisk hybrid creature until he couldn't keep that up any longer, was forced to his regular basilisk form and finally back to human, or Lich, whatever. He didn't know how much fight he had left but he wasn't about to give up. Shink! One of the demons managed to put their enchanted broadsword right through his torso just below his sternum, just barely missing his spine. He banished the demon away and onto another demons axe, it died and with it's death the broadsword disintegrated. Then an axe hacked into his thigh, he fell to his knees and screamed. The storm above responded, the world lit up with lightning and the resulting thunder brought everything to the ground. Rahkeshs' vision shifted and the demons roared in triumph as they sensed defeat.

XXXXX

"The dream started off well enough..." He trailed off thinking of the horrors he saw, so horrifying and awful actually that he was half convinced it was just a dream but he had an audience and he needed a second opinion. "There was this rocking hot blonde and she kept eyeing me, you could smell her blood from across-"

"Is this going to be about this girl or is it actually important?" Ally asked looking incredibly unimpressed and uninterested in everything Daray was saying. Daray scowled at her and Ranae laughed.

"We'll talk about the girl later just get to the nightmare part." She laughed again at Darays dirty look.

"It wasn't a nightmare, at least I don't think it was, I think it was a vision. I think Rahkesh is in trouble." That got everyone's attention well enough, Rahkesh wasn't someone anyone but a few could fuck with without dying a _really_ horrible death. "I went over to the blonde and said 'Hey baby.' She laughed and when she went to say something back it came out as a roar." He scowled again at their laughter.

"So you're scared of women now?" Ally laughed.

"That does seem to be a pretty big problem." Ranae replied and they all laughed.

"Suddenly I was somewhere else, surrounded by demons and all alone. The sky was black with an insane storm, I was on my knees-"

"Sounds like an every day occurrence for you." Silas interrupted getting another round of laughter. Daray scowled and continued. "I had blood all over my hands and I heard hissing in my ear. That's right when I realized I was seeing what Rahkesh was seeing because I screamed and the storm responded, everything exploded, my vision went black and I woke up..." He trailed off, everyone stayed silent for a moment.

"Did you try contacting him?" Ranae asked getting a slightly glassy look in her eyes as she attempted contacting Rahkesh herself.

"That was the first thing I did and I couldn't find him." Silas got a glazed look on his face for a moment before he shook his head and agreed.

"I can't find him either, didn't he go somewhere with Namach?" He asked, without another word the two got up and headed off to Namachs office, reaching it the two heard shouting and sensed angry uncontrolled magic. Glancing at each other briefly the two ran the last few feet to the door, the door swung open for them and they walked in. The ancient was sitting at his desk with an angry vacant look on his face, standing before him on the other side of his desk was a screaming Nicodemus and a growling, very angry looking cream colored demon.

"You mean to tell me you don't know?! And there's _nothing_ you can do about it?!" Nic was just about glowing with anger. The two Ateres glanced at each other again. So far it seemed no one had noticed them enter, even Eli was in a corner looking distraught and distracted.

"I cannot contact him because there is some form of dark power blocking our link, it feels awfully familiar and yet you can't explain?" Sharahak growled, neither Ateres had ever heard him so angry before, in fact, as they watched they realized that the ancient was not even listening. He seemed lost in thought and angry enough to destroy a planet.

"Rahkesh is very resourceful and seeing as the world has not yet imploded I can only imagine he's still alive." Daray stated bringing everyone's attention to the two vampires standing at the door.

"I take it you both sensed great distress from him?" Silas asked Nic and Sharahak, not needing to clarify who 'him' was. They both had, and both knew each other had magical connections with Rahkesh. Their unease seemed to be feeding off each other and this could get _much_ worse if they didn't calm down.

"Panicking will only worsen the situation, I would very much like to know what's going on and find him. We all would and we will, but we need to do this right. First, how did you lose him?" Daray asked Namach who pretended not to hear, Rahkesh had told Silas about his golem going rogue and Namach had, as quickly as possible, gone and erased his memories of that information. This situation could, and probably would, get much more out of hand if the other elder vampires found out. The only people who knew were Nvara, Rahkesh, Hadrian, Konovalov and a few of his other former apprentices. The only reason he let Rahkesh know was because he would be in grave danger but he had underestimated his golem, or his student, because now he's MIA and it's only a matter of time before the elves realise there's a Lich on earth. Namach going into battle with the elves to protect Rahkesh could give his golem the golden opportunity to defeat him after the elves have weakened him. _I really need to find Rahkesh._ The ancient thought to himself.

Glancing up Namach realized he was about to get attacked by Rahkeshs' friends and needed to tell them something. Thinking fast the ancient made a snap decision and sighed. "As I'm sure you're all well aware, Rahkesh has become a Lich. He does not know his strength or what he can do and is as much, if not more of a threat than this whole invasion. He must be trained before he kills everyone and everything, as to not being able to reach him telepathically, we all know he has a phobia of any sort of invasive magic in his mind. Being a Lich his mind magics have greatly increased and he has therefore completely shut down any and all incoming telepathy.

He is currently training with one of my golems and is safe enough, now if you'd excuse me I have a meeting with some fellow necromancers." Namach replied sternly leaving no room for argument. He stood up from his desk and promptly apparated away leaving the two young vampires, Nicodemus and Sharahak staring at empty space.

"He can't honestly expect us to just wait around and pretend everything's okay!?" Nic raged glancing around at the others and realizing that's exactly what they were going to do, Namach is the elder more powerful vampire and to disobey him could surely mean death for them.

"So, does the MLFC have any ideas on how to fix the barrier between worlds yet?" Daray asked not so subtly trying to change the subject. Nic sighed and plopped down into one of the ancients ever so elegant arm chairs.

"No, everyone just kept arguing about it." He sounded defeated. "There was talk about possibly trying our musical magic to stabilize it but it was thrown out the window, the only way to stabilize it would have to be done around the entire globe simultaneously in order to work. The MLFC says there aren't enough magical folk powerful enough to spread around the world to work the whole barrier simultaneously not to mention the coordination they would have to have with the other people. It would have to be a group of the most powerful sorcerers the earth has, all of them together, to be able to reach all corners of the earth and with the invasion going on there's no way that's going to happen."

"So it was all for nothing?" Daray asked forlornly.

"No." Silas replied sternly, refusing to give up hope on it. "There's a solution we just haven't found it yet. You really can't reach Rahkesh?" He asked back at Nic hoping they could somehow contact him.

"No, every time I try I sense death. I sensed his death not too long ago but it didn't feel like death, I could still tell he was alive even though I sensed his death if that makes any sense. I've been trying to contact him since and have been blocked every time." Nic said sadly, he might care about Rahkesh more than anyone, except maybe Sharahak who was still standing in the same place behind Namachs desk growling faintly and looking thoroughly murderous. He might listen to Namach because he's the elder vampire but he owes Rahkesh a life debt which he can use to override Namachs orders and if he thought he had to do that to save Rahkesh he probably would, even knowing it would probably mean his death.

"He's pretty powerful and unique, I say we just go hunt him down." Daray said mischievously. "Namachs orders be damned Rahkesh is one of us and he wouldn't ever hurt us."

"The headmistress would kill us if Namach doesn't and if he's with Namach or one of his golems at one of his estates we'd still probably never find him, the demons take precedence. Rahkesh is damn powerful, he can take care of himself." Silas replied, not wanting to die over nothing.

"ROOOAAAAAAAAARRRRR!" Sharahak took flight and busted through Namachs balcony doors.

"Should we be worried?" Daray asked Nic and Silas sheepishly. Silas opened his mouth to reply but before he could alarms started blaring and sounds like a giant transformer reverberated throughout the valley making the ground shake.


	6. Chapter Six

Death magic sweeps through the field, black and vibrant red fire flows out in rings and pulses in synchronicity with his growls. His eyes are aglow casting silver light through the magic that shrouds him, his skin is covered in layer after layer of glowing gold bloodmagic runes and the magic about him is so strong, chaotic and intensely out of control that he's hardly even trying. The demons out of range of the black and red fire surge to the air to get over it but then get impaled by gigantic chunks of ice or incinerated from the white fire blowing through the air like snow under the thick clouds of the storm, a storm worthy of a thunderbird.

Namachs servants tracked this portal shortly after it opened and instantly notified him due to its potential, in his rage over knowing his golem took Rahkesh and that the golem had done a bloodmagic ritual to cancel the mind-share he decided he needed to let a little anger out. He sent his servants after the escaped demons and took on the portal himself, something he could do even without the blood-boiling anger. When he arrived he was delighted to find five arch demons guarding it. They had all died rather quickly, unfortunately, and gruesomely. He used their blood and the goo that was once their bodies as poisonous weapons, flinging it around and incinerating the demons it came into contact with. He then spread it across the ground, using his bloodmagic to keep it acidic and any demons stupid enough to step into the glowing black goo melted into it like a snowman stepping into magma only to add to it and create more.

The MLFC hadn't reported it yet but the demons were starting to become a real problem, at first they knew where all the portals were and they were able to send teams to them to stop them from getting into the world but fighters kept dying and those that didn't got seriously injured and needed time to recover if they wanted to be any good in the next fight. Earth's fighters dwindled because of this and they only had maybe ten thousand fighters ready to go at a moment's notice, ten thousand fighters with portals still popping up all over earth where their searches never detected any portals and their portal detection systems were breaking from all the demon magic being released into the world. The demons had superior numbers, something the world has known since the beginning, hence the struggle for a solution. They had found one thanks to Rahkesh but unfortunately they had underestimated how much time the new world would need for it's border to stabilize. The MLFC has been sending groups of people through whenever possible with instructions to either start building a town or, for the more powerful ones they send across, to analyze and do what they can to help stabilize the border, so far no success had been reported.

The Chachapoyaro finally joined the fight, dividing into three teams and taking out portal after portal with ease and no casualties but they couldn't stop them all. Many portals had gone unopposed letting the demons free to terrorize the world, many of those the demons capture die before they reach the portals from the suicide potions that were given out early on. Not many had been captured however, the demons that get through and escape split up thinking they're so much superior to earth's life forms and with so many not fitting into the shelters and so many unprepared to retreat into the muggle world they were defeating the demons before they could get captured, though many were still dying fighting them off. The magical communities are enraged and appalled at the moment which Namach is sure is helping with the defense against the demons that show up to capture civilians. They are enraged and appalled because the MLFC announced that since things are starting to get so much more out of hand civilians need to consider killing off their offspring, the demons are able to detect accidental magic and although everyone gives off a little from time to time, children give off quite a lot, much more constantly and they can't be trained without using it.

The children are essentially beacons to the demons, alerting them to the positions of magical folk. So far this has lead to few abductions, the parents fighting to the death with one or two demons trying to capture slaves, these demons aren't fighters or sorcerers and this is why most of the magical civilians can fight them off but they are still demons and so many are still dying in the process. The MLFC sees this as a problem, they wish to preserve as many magical beings as possible. In the words of Stocklir 'All will be for nothing if we are driven extinct over protecting our children, it is a very difficult decision but you will eventually meet your match and I can't think of anything worse than imagining my child a slave for the demons.' Many had started trying to figure a way to mute their children's magic, or to find a way to protect them safely or even to kill them without killing them. The draught of living death was discussed but that potion is very short term and overuse of it would result in permanent damage. A great many potions masters have turned their attention away from killing demons to instead working on a long term draught of living death, a great many of the other specialty sorcerer types have also joined the fight in trying to save the children, but nothing promising has been found yet.

Namach smirked at the death and carnage around him, his methods of killing this portal weren't the most fun or efficient, but _damn_ did he think it beautiful to watch them all burn, melt, vaporize, incinerate or explode from his magics while he stands here thinking. Rahkesh really was much like him, clear headed in the most extreme close to death situations. He had never told anyone and especially not Rahkesh but it was one of the many reasons he was so fond of him. Namach isn't afraid of his golem, quite the contrary actually. He wanted more than anything to go fight his golem, to test his magics against himself. Most would say the demon invasion was bad and in many ways it surely is, but for Namach it was incredibly exciting, he hadn't gotten to stretch and use his magics to this extent since he was so much younger and weaker. He had thought to hop over to the Elven realm and help them fight off the demons from time to time but they wouldn't take well to a vampire joining their fight.

Unfortunately however, Namach knew that if a fight between himself and his golem were to happen all magical earth life would die or be mugglafied as a result. If this were to happen those that survived would hunt him down and kill him no matter how long or how many lives it took to do it. It had been nearly a thousand years since his armageddon battle with Farraidar that had nearly destroyed an entire planetoid, he had learned much of his weaknesses and potential strengths from that fight and had spent every year since improving his bloodmagics. What unnerved him most however was that he couldn't locate Rahkesh with the magic he had planted in his neck, being very complex bloodmagic his golem shouldn't be able to block or interfere with it but nonetheless, Namach couldn't reach him. He knew full well that Rahkeshs' friends would attack him if they thought Rahkesh was in danger from him, and if he accidentally killed even one of Rahkeshs' friends then Rahkesh would be after Namach.

Rahkesh doesn't know it yet but that battle would probably be as bad if not worse than his fight with Farraidar had been. The only prospect that worried the ancient was the golem getting at Rahkeshs' blood, another thing Rahkesh didn't know about was the power of his own blood. Undoubtedly the most powerful substance on the planet, it could be used for many things... Namach glanced around at the destruction and realized the portal had combusted and the demons had all died, he sighed and reigned in his magics. He went to apparate to the next unobstructed portal location that his servants had informed him of but found his magic blocked, something very few magical beings could do.

He growled, shaking the earth around him and sending pebbles skittering as his magics swirled around him. With a huge gust of cold magic, like from giant magical wings, Farraidar appeared about thirty yards before him and smiled in greeting. Farraidar was much the same as always, elegant and tall with his long blonde hair flowing down his back and his bright green eyes glowing through the distance. He was wearing clothes and armor made almost entirely of bloodmetal and threadmagic, glowing a gold, red and purple. The only thing out of the norm for him was that he still had his death dragon wings in existence, though not anywhere near the size they are when he's in his death dragon form they were still a total wingspan of about forty feet.

Without saying a word Farraidar closed the gap to about ten yards and spoke softly. "When were you planning on telling me how out of control this planet has gotten?" He asked steely and calm, Namach knew this to mean Farraidar was very pissed and gave him a fanged smile.

"Who said it was out of control? Earth doesn't need you inferior pointy eared retches getting involved." He replied calmly, not worried in the least by the angry elf standing before him. Farraidar chuckled.

"A mortal child thunderbird has turned into a Lich, a being capable of consuming all magic and becoming unstoppable, one of your golems has gone rogue, cancelled your mind share and taken possession of the Lich. The demons are eagerly attacking your planet, _largely_ unopposed, and you say this is _not_ out of control? Perhaps we were mistaken in thinking you earthlings were capable."

"Mistaken? No no, we are very capable. I could end this whole thing in five minutes if it came to it but that would take with it all sentient magical life on this planet and I've not yet given up hope on the beings of earth, and as for Rahkesh, I rather think you'll become very fond of him once-"

"The Lich _must_ be destroyed." Farraidar interrupted, Namach growled.

"_Once you perform a mind and soul reading you'll find yourself very fond of him." _Namach hissed. "He doesn't yet have a clue as to his potential nor does he have any idea what he is currently capable of, as of right now you could surely best him in a fight." Namach replied then laughed at the ludicrous statement of earth being out of control and incapable of handling a mere demon invasion, in truth he was very worried the elves would be demolishing the planet and starting over, if not because of the demons than because Rahkesh went and grew a Dyalnos tree, something the Elves still had no idea about and that he wasn't about to tell Farraidar of.

Farraidar sighed. "You say things are not out of control, tell me you blood sucking parasite, where is this young Lich we speak of?" Farraidar replied with a teasing smile, knowing full well Namach has no idea where his golem has taken Rahkesh. "Your powers block me from his location yet it's not _you_ who is doing this, you're not opposed to it of course because you are very fond of this thunderbird and you know that his blood could make you a true immortal, yet what would happen I wonder if your golem was instead to be the one to take his blood?"

"The golem would vaporize, you know this, I know this and so does the golem. I could count on one hand the beings capable of consuming his blood and _eventually_ surviving, this list of course dwindles as he gets stronger. The dragon blood he consumed has altered his blood to become extremely toxic and is yet to finish with him. I could of course consume his blood and, like you said, become a true immortal but I would be incapable of defending myself from so much as a squirrel for the good part of a year and there are many who would be _oh_ so happy to take my place, any lesser being would spontaneously combust. Their bodies, magic and soul would be consumed in the magical fire and added to his strength and magic." Farraidar scowled and adjusted his wings, bending them slightly forward and pointing the fierce looking red-tipped wing claws towards Namach.

Namach couldn't help but admire their beauty, giant sleek black scaled wings edged in silver, red and purple. The wing claws were white as bone with blood red tips, the wings gave off a cold, soul sucking death magic not unlike that a dementor does. Not many would describe such a thing as beautiful but Namach certainly does.

"I'm not sure you're understanding the seriousness of the situation. I understand you're very fond of him, but he _cannot_ be permitted to live." Farraidar sighed. "I do not wish to fight with you Tristan, we have been through this and-"

"Do a mind and soul reading!" Namach growled, refusing to give up. "You're a rational, logical bunch, do a mind and soul reading! He _cannot_ stop you from doing it and the worst that happens is you don't like what you find and kill him, but in doing so you might find yourself and your kind a valuable asset. There is no harm in this and it takes you very little time." Namachs magics flared with his anger, covering the ground around him with frost. For a moment there was only silence and magic between the two while they glared each other down. Sensing his refusal to back down and his willingness to fight over it Farraidar sighed and shook his head.

"It shall be as you say, but he cannot be involved in your unenlightened, irresponsible, uneducated, idiotic mistake making delusions between you and that golem. Whether he lives or dies is yet to be discovered but I cannot allow a creature so powerful and ignorant to be caught between you and your very destructive and disruptive evil twin. You must bring him to me or inform me of when you have regained possession of him, this is top priority as of now, do you understand?" With a cold gust of magic the elven commander disappeared into thin air.

"You iridescent fruit." Namach growled staring after him. Just before the ancient went to apparate to the next portal, again, he felt yet another presence blocking his magics and turned with a growl to find a dark angel glaring at him. The dark angel wasn't fully corporeal but he could still see the wings sticking through the void-like black flame, the sinister fanged smile and the glowing eyes. Anyone who didn't know her wouldn't have had any idea who she was but Namach was an all-powerful ancient and little was unknown to him. "Cyala." He reluctantly nodded his greeting.

"Tristan." She replied, fanged smirk unwavering. "Thing's have gotten a little... complicated, but I have a plan."

XXX

_"This is an important announcement from the Magical Life Forms Conclave. At 0800 this morning the battle against the demon invasion was declared defeat. All defenders have been recalled to their various posts defending bunkers, outposts and top secret facilities. If you have been granted a place or position amongst one of the shelters please refer to your leading council or government members on how to proceed. If you have no place amongst one of the bunkers we highly recommend splitting into small groups of no more than ten and retreating to the muggle world. It is imperative that whether this is your plan or not, to cease all use of magic. The demons have magic detection systems that detect intentional and non-intentional magic use_, _due to this information it is highly recommended to keep moving. All beings release trace amounts of non-intentional magic._

_As was discussed and announced previously, young children pose a great threat to everyone's safety. Children cannot control their magic and the amount of accidental magic they give off is immensely more than that of a trained adult. We know it is morally wrong to even consider killing our children, even more so for the simple fact that they cannot control their magic, but we highly recommend the liquidation of the worlds young. To give you such an ultimatum, to hand you such a difficult decision, shatters our hearts. For what it's worth, the reason this is such an important decision is mercy. They will lead the demons to you and the demons will defeat you and enslave the children. This will empower their society and utterly destroy our children. Furthermore no new developments have been made regarding the new world, any and all new developments regarding the new world will be broadcast to you as they come in. With pain in our hearts, we wish you good luck."_

Everyone in the room was left speechless, the broadcast came from just about everything magical, the radio they had on listening to reports announced it and a holographic projection came from every wand in the room. Hermione glanced around at everyone, Ginny, Neville, Luna, Fred, George, Charlie, Bill, their parents and Gus the neighbor from next door who promptly got up and left without a word. They expected it to get bad, the MLFC had originally said the invasion would be too much for earth's fighters. So far however, it seemed earth's fighters were doing really well at shutting down the portals. "They can't just do that! They can't just _give_ up!" Hermione shrieked, a tear streaming down her face. "How dare they suggest _murdering_ children! That _cannot_ be allowed, if we do that we're no better than... than... these _monsters_!"

"It's going to put a great many people in a right state." Fred said.

"I wish we could talk to Harry about it." George said.

"I need to go home to Fleur, she's probably losing her mind about now." Bill said before apparating away.

"Where are we supposed to go? It's not like we have homes in the muggle world!" Hermione continued her panic. "I mean I can go home to my parents but I'll just be putting them in danger!"

"I would go to them and be as muggle as you can Hermione, it's the best hope you have at survival." Mr. Weasely told her getting up from his cushy arm chair and walking into the kitchen for another cup of tea. Mrs. Weasely was simply stunned, sitting on the couch and staring at the spot where the hologram had projected out of her wand.

"Neville you got admitted to one of the United States bunkers didn't you?" Luna asked from his shoulder.

"Yeah but, I don't know that I want to go." He sighed. "Gran can't come, she's too old to be admitted. She wants me to go and be safe but I can't just leave her."

"Oh Neville, you _have_ to go. If you don't go then your spot will be wasted!" Hermione continued.

"She's right." George said.

"They originally thought this war would be the end of Earth's magical life." Fred finished.

"You have to save yourself for the future and for those who can't be saved." Ginny put in. Neville just shook his head looking sad.

"I suppose I'll go say goodbye." He said with a tear falling down his face.

"Neville, your grandmother is very old and has had a lifetime to learn to control her magic. Being old it's likely the demons won't even want her, you heard what Harry said. She could probably escape and be just fine in the muggle world. Go, get to safety Neville." Mr. Weasely tried to comfort him as he walked back into the living room. As Neville got up they all paused as they heard a scream of terror outside. Glancing at each other they feared the worst and were all holding their breath, dreading what they might hear next.

"Expelliarmus!" Someone outside shrieked, followed by a couple more screams and a few more spells. As everyone moved towards the window to see what was happening they heard an unearthly roar and they all instantly knew, the demons were right outside.

"Hermione apparate to your parents! Neville, go say goodbye to your grandmother and get to the shelter! Everybody else apparate into town!" Arthur yelled to everyone in the room. Hermione gave everyone a sad look and disappeared, Neville grabbed Luna and apparated to his grandmother's with her in tow. Molly and Ginny apparated away but before Fred, George or Arthur could the door exploded inward with a deafening bang and a ferocious roar, showering them with splinters of wood and making their ears ring. Two demons entered the house drooling and snorting fire. The first demon was maybe eight and a half feet tall with solid black eyes, it's color was a deep green but the edges of it's scales were a purple and blue. The second demon was shorter by maybe a foot and all black except for a faint flame-like sheen of red on the insides of it's wings. Just like they were told the demons looked like a cross between dogs and humans, if the dogs were from hell anyway, they had long snouts attached to human-ish faces, they walked on all fours and had incredibly long and sharp looking claws attached to human-like hands. The razor edged wings and spear tipped tails were a little too much though.

"Bloody hell!" Fred yelled jumping to his feet and ripping out his wand.

"Avada Kadavra!" Arthur yelled from the ground, the spell bounced off the green demon and blew a hole through the television but succeeded in getting it's attention. Arthur rolled to the side as the demon in front lunged for him. George leaped to his feet and yanked a yellow rubber duck out of his pocket and chucked it at the second demon, caught off guard it nailed the demon right on the nose and ineffectively dropped to the ground. The demon hissed. "Are you bloody laughing mate?" Fred asked pointing his wand at the rubber duck. The demon snapped it's head around towards him, suddenly serious and hunched up like a house cat ready to pounce.

Fred fired his spell first, setting off the rubber duck, a decoy detonator, which promptly shot up and started screaming and running circles around the demon who turned around and around trying to catch it. With the second demon distracted Fred and George turned to help Arthur. As they watched the green demon lunged at a bloody, battered Arthur who was standing right in front of it looking defeated. Fred and George screamed but Arthur wasn't as out of the fight as they thought, he threw up a shield spell at the last second that the demon bounced off of so fiercely that it flew back right past Fred and through the living room window. They raced over to Arthur.

"Those decoys are amazing boys." He told them with a smirk whilst watching the demon in the doorway chase the decoy donator around in circles.

"We need to apparate out of here _now._" He continued, as they tried they found they couldn't so they turned to race out the back door. Over the screams, shouts and general sounds of mayhem outside they heard a fierce and rather annoyed sounding growl and a screaming decoy detonator went flying past them and smashed into the wall behind the obliterated television with a final shriek before it stopped. They turned to find the black demon with a yellow piece of rubber hanging from a wing claw. Behind it stood a very angry looking deep green demon.

"I'll distract them, you boys wait until the coast is clear and run until you can apparate. Find your mother and disappear into the muggle world." Arthur told Fred and George under his breath.

"No dad, we'll kill these right bastards together!" George yelled as he charged the shorter black demon.

"No!" Arthur yelled, the shorter black demon spun and sunk its tail deep into George's thigh. As they watched it curled the end of its tail and spun slamming George into the wall.

"Accio!" Arthur remembered that they're great at deflecting offensive magic, that's what Harry had told them. "They're great at deflecting offensive magic!" Arthur summoned the things brain and the demon instantly screamed and collapsed. "Accio!" He tried again on the green one but it had caught on. Fred was now standing over George on the other side of the demon to Arthur, George was moaning in pain and Fred looked scared as all hell.

Arthur wanted more than anything to save and comfort his sons, even if it cost him his life. This thought gave him an idea, one that might just work. "Expecto patronus!" He screamed and out leaped a shining silver weasel. His patronus shrieked and attacked the demon who recoiled as if stabbed and started trying to attack the patronus. Arthur ran to Fred and George, quickly healed George, picked him up and ran to the back door. They burst out into a war zone, the bodies of their neighbors were gutted, shredded and flung all over hedges, houses, trees, cars, the street. Everything was tainted red with blood, there were a few demon bodies here and there but way more humans littered the ground. As they watched, one of their neighbors who they hadn't yet met was throwing spell after spell at a big grey demon that was more wings than anything. It swung it's wings back and forth deflecting every spell and stepping closer to him with every one until finally it was standing right in front of him.

They froze in horror as the demon unhinged it's jaw and bit his head off, as the demon chewed in ecstacy their neighbors lifeless body dropped to the ground squirting blood from his neck. They ran the other way and didn't stop, all the sounds of fighting and death never receding, the horrors they saw as they ran like that of a nightmare until finally it was all in the neighborhood behind them.

"Ugh, set me down." George groaned from Arthurs shoulder. Arthur dropped him but they still kept moving due to the deathly shrieks they could still hear.

"We need to get to town and find mum!" Fred gasped out as they ran, they all stopped and apparated away. "More bloody chaos!" Fred yelled as he dropped to the ground to avoid a stray spell. However bad their neighborhood was, town was worse. Intestines and bits of flesh were smeared everywhere, buildings on fire, shrieks and screams were accompanied by moans and groans of the dying. Screams and cries of despair stung their ears as loved ones couldn't heal the poisoned wounds and their loved ones died before their eyes. The sky, full of smoke, was dotted with flying demons whisking people away. Many squirmed or cast spells, to no avail. Some screamed for help that which would not come. None of this did Arthur notice however, he was busy looking at a bloody body lying off to their left next to a burning pub. George tackled him to the ground just before a low flying demon would have.

Arthur got to his feet unfazed, ignoring the chaos and stumbled over to Molly's lifeless body. Her face was pale and frozen in shock, she had a giant gaping hole in her chest right in front of her heart and was completely covered in blood. Her wand lay on the ground just next to her hand. All three of them bowed their heads and cried, demon invasion be damned. The battle continued around them but they ignored it, until a demon landed before them with a growl. Arthur leaped to his feet and threw his wand out "Acc-" Just as Arthur tried to summon it's heart out the demon spun a full circle, whipping it's tail up and slicing open his throat.

"NO!" George screamed and leaped at the demon who sunk its claws into his shoulder and took to the air, knocking Arthur to the ground as it did.

"George!" Fred screamed as his brother was whisked away.

"Fred!" George screamed while he fumbled for his wand which dropped from his pocket as he did. "FRED!"

"George! NO! Accio George!" Fred tried but the demon flew through the cloud of smoke and disappeared. "Dad!" He turned around and ran back to Arthur. Covered in his own blood from the gushing slit in his throat Arthur was lying next to Molly holding her in his arms. Fred got to him and turned Arthur towards him and tried a healing spell but it didn't work, he tried again desperately to no avail. "Dad." He sobbed, tears streaming down his face.

"Ru-" Arthur coughed up blood. "Run." Arthur wheezed to Fred just before his eyes closed for the last time, Fred sobbed and held Arthur. Part of the burning pub behind him collapsed shaking the ground but Fred didn't care, all he cared about was lying dead in front of him or carried off to Merlin knows where. A bright red spell flew past his shoulder and exploded the wall of the pub behind him showering him in shrapnel, Fred glanced up to see a group of demons shrouded in a purple haze of magic using it to cast spells on the witches and wizards trying to fight them off. As he watched the witches and wizards went down one by one to spell after spell. Much as he didn't want to he knew he had to leave, Fred kissed his dad's forehead and got up, he went over and kissed his mum's forehead, turned and walked down the alleyway disappearing into the smoke of the burning pub.

XXX

The sky lit up in varying shades of red, sounds of an electrical storm stung their ears drowning out the sounds of the alarms going off inside the school. Students and alumni yelling and shuffling around, either to come outside and get ready to fight or to get to the schools bunker for shelter. They all knew the war with the demons had been getting steadily worse but now it was completely out of hand, the demons had overrun the earth's fighting forces and were now running rampant amongst the globe. The news reports were mimicking the chaos they were reporting. In most magical communities they were caught off guard, many got away and disappeared before the demons showed up but those that didn't were either fighting so their loved ones could escape or escaping as their loved ones died for them to do so. Everyone from the school who was going to fight was gathering just outside the main entrance to the school because they didn't yet know which way if from any specific direction the demons would come, they weren't yet prepared to fight on the school grounds otherwise they would've just left an opening on the main trail. The schools wards could probably keep them out for weeks however so they probably weren't going to fight today, that said the necromancers were marching out to resurrect their armies of the undead, the potions students were marching out to set traps along with the tracking and sabotage students.

Many other classes and specialties were setting about to ready everything, assuming they had enough time the demons first few waves wouldn't even make it past the entrance to the Akren mountain range. The electrical sounds and shades of red flashing through the sky were getting more and more frequent to the point where it was almost constant. "With every reverberation and flash of red one of the demons dies, the ward is coded so that it won't attack any students or allies but when it gets too weak it self- destructs rather spectacularly so we'll have to drop the ward once it starts to weaken. Nicodemus you should probably get back to your people and see if all is well, if worse comes to worst you and all your people have a place here in our shelter. Do any of you have any idea where Tristan is?" Nvara said all this casually, as if the war with the demons was just some sort of school scrimmage that happens all the time.

"No, he left just before this started happening, looked rather angry." Silas informed her.

"Didn't mention where he was going either." Daray finished.

"Tristan has never been one for answering to anyone, hence the reason why he went and killed all the vampires older than him and, for all intents and purposes, made himself the 'unofficial' vampire king." She chuckled. "Much as I would like you all to stay and fight, I do sense trouble with Rahkesh. I do not know where he is but I know something is not right, in leaving you will be risking your lives. Not just from the demons but from Namach, he gave you clear instructions to let it go, no? I tell you this because I already know you three were planning to do it anyway." She finished, answering the questions written on their faces.

"We need him." Daray told her with a nod.

"I can entertain that the three of you have multiple reasons for tracking him down, just do it quickly will you?" She replied before turning and walking away.

"As the headmistress said, I should return to my people. I will flay you all if you do not keep me updated." Nic said sternly before teleporting away, usually you would have to leave the school grounds to do so but that ward had been lifted for students, alumni and allies. With the significant horde of demons outside the range, stepping out there would be suicide.

"So if we are to assume Namach doesn't actually know where Rahkesh has gone then, where do we look?" Sharahak asked turning from the blazing light show of death to Daray.

"I should think that would be obvious, we look for an insane storm or signs of one and follow the destruction." Daray replied getting a laugh out of Silas. "Let's start with the destroyed portals." With that they apparated away to a portal. The ground blackened, pieces of bodies of every kind lay strewn across the landscape, puddles of ooze and goo laying in the low spots. Damaged and destroyed weapons lay here and there and at the center of it all lay a giant mound of gold slowly sinking back into the earth. Daray kicked a broken axe next to his foot.

"Certainly destruction but I don't sense anything inherently Rahkesh-like." Silas said glancing towards the cloudless sky.

"No lightning scars or remnant electrical energy means he definitely wasn't here." Daray laughed, Sharahak on the other hand growled. "Are you okay?" Daray asked him.

"No, I sense great distress from Rahkesh and I owe him a life debt. Let's keep going." He apparated away, Silas and Daray followed before they lost his medical signature and found themselves standing before a very familiar scene.

"This is Canada." Silas said for Sharahaks benefit, Daray obviously knew. "This is where we went when the invasion first started." There were definitely marks of Rahkesh around, scorch marks all over the ground and rocks, the burned out tree trunks that were still standing were split or scorched in the pattern of lightning, fresh dirt showed in the higher elevated areas and dried up rivers of ash in the lower areas from the rain created by his storm. Chunks of gold littered the ground all around where the portal was from his lightning blowing it apart. Other than that however everything looked pretty much the same as the last one, save for a little less mess as this one had been cleaned up to look more like a natural disaster. "I believe they tried to make this one look like a lightning storm, thanks to Rahkesh that was pretty easy to do." Daray called out to them.

"This gives us a fresh look at what the remnants of his magic feel like." Sharahak stated.

Silas laughed. "No. You want to know what his magic currently feels like then we need to go to where he transformed." He apparated away. The scene was all too familiar, the carnage stretching as far as they could see. The smell of wildfire still fresh in the air, smoke still rising slowly from hot spots. They could see clearly where it happened, the tree they had taken their last stand around still standing and still green. "Stands out doesn't it?" Silas asked realizing they were all staring at it.

"The magic here..." Sharahak trailed off for a moment. "It's unlike anything I've ever sensed." He sounded a little awed.

"Should make it easier to track him though." Daray said. They apparated to several other portals, a couple were still active and they thought about fighting but realized quickly that they weren't a match for the constant and steady stream of demons coming through the portals so they continued on. Finally after their thirty-second portal examination they all three sat down out of exhaustion, the sun was going down and wherever they were it was getting cold. Given that Daray and Silas were vampires and Sharahak a demon, none of them really cared about the cold, it didn't bother them. But Sharahak flew off and gathered some unburnt wood, brought it back and coughed some fire onto it to ignite it. They sat there a while just enjoying the fire in silence.

"It is imperative that you find him." All three of them started and turned around to see a tall glowing elf with golden blonde hair to his waist and glowing green eyes, decked out in so much bloodmetal he could've been a cyborg. "You realize _not_ just how horrendous your current predicament is. This friend of yours, you have learned, has become a Lich. You know not what he is capable of, neither does he." He walked around to the other side of the bonfire and looked at them each in turn. "You know I am an Elf but do you know who I am? I am Farraidar, high Elven commander." He continued not allowing them to respond, they all knew who he was so they were a little confused with the introduction.

"I have sought you out because of anyone on this planet it is most likely that you three will be the first ones to find him, you must understand however, Liches can steal the magic of those around them. Sometimes this theft is only temporary, other times it is permanent. Temporary or permanent depends on how well trained the Lich is, your friend has no training on this type of magic and therefore might turn you into muggles accidentally, or kill you... I have regretfully decided against killing him on sight but he must be spirited away to somewhere he can safely learn to control himself before he is allowed back onto this planet, failure to comply _will_ result in your death. Report to Tristan the moment you find him." With a gust of bone-chilling wind the Elven commander vanished.

"Well that's pleasant." Daray sarcastically announced.

"This is much more serious than we thought if _he_ is involved." Sharahak stated the obvious staring at the spot where Farraidar had just stood. "We can only do so much by apparating around to the portals. Go get some rest, I will call when I find signs of him." Sharahak stood and stretched his wings as if getting ready to fly off.

"Uhh, no." Daray said standing as well and instantly transforming into his all black alfa-demon self. "We're coming with you." Silas transformed into his scorpion animagi and scuttled up Daray and settled onto his shoulder.

_Perfectly disguised. _Silas sent the thought to Daray and Sharahak. _Fl__ying around as demons they'll all just think you're a couple of them searching for captives, I'll keep an eye out for any unwanted company. _He finished and they took flight heading for the next portal.

XXXX

"But Gram, I can't just leave you to die!" Neville complained. After leaving the Weaselys residence Neville apparated to his grandmother's house still unsure whether he should go to the shelter or not.

"This is not up for debate young man." She scolded. "You being safe in a shelter is what will give me the strength to escape into the muggle world without worry."

"But Gram they can detect intentional and_accidental_ magic! They will find you eventually and kill you! I have to stay and protect you!" With every word Neville found himself wanting to go to the bunker less and less.

"I am old, dear Neville. I have had a lifetime of magic, I do not need use it anymore and I am beginning to weaken so my accidental magic decreases with every passing day." She looked and sounded sad. "I have had a good long life, I am sorry your parents died son, but I am very proud of the man you've grown up to be. When this is all over I will find you, if I don't then I have passed and you must move on." She cried. Neville hugged her with no intention of ever letting go, the demons hadn't found this neighborhood yet but word had gotten out that they were traveling unopposed because _everyone_ in the neighborhood was scrambling about. Luna popped back into the room, Neville spun around, whipped his wand up and cast a defensive spell. Luna ducked just in time and a picture frame behind her exploded. She turned around to look at the remnants of the frame, then back at Neville with very wide and teary eyes.

"My parents are forcing me to stick with you on the hopes that I'll get in the shelter. You never told me Neville, does the shelter have any Crumple horned snorcacks?" She asked returning to her normal self, Gram snickered behind Neville.

"You better hurry Neville." She told him softly. After collecting his belongings and a few plants and seeds from the garden Neville grabbed Luna and apparated to the nearest government office with a final teary eyed wave to his grandmother and landed right in the middle of a riot. Instantly his eyes, nose and mouth stung from magical tear gas. Spells flying everywhere, most were being cast towards the government building but were bouncing off of it's shields and ricocheting everywhere causing street signs to smudge, bend or burn, blasting limbs off the nearby trees, breaking the windows of nearby shops and, as they watched a nearby rioter got hit in the shoulder, his arm blew off and went flying through the air spraying blood everywhere. Luna turned and puked into the gutter of the street.

"We want shelter! We want shelter!" The crowd chanted.

"This is a disaster." Neville mumbled to himself as he patted Luna on the back, her puke was neon orange which he thought was strange but decided there were more important things to be focused on. He dragged Luna up to the main gate but the men on the other side were all wearing riot gear and were casting defensive spells. "I'm a herbolagist! I was granted admittance to the shelter! My name is Neville!" He yelled at the guards but they continued on as if he hadn't said anything. "Sonorus." He set the charm on his throat, tried again and got a different result but not the one he was looking for. The men on the other side of the gate continued again as if they hadn't heard but a _lot_ of people on his side of the gate stopped rioting and turned to him with an angry glare. They all took a step closer and he knew he was about to get beaten to death. "Wait!" He called with the charm still on his throat, chaos and chanting still echoing up and down the town, a town that even though the demons hadn't found it yet was still starting to look apocalyptic. buildings burning to the ground, looters running from shop to shop, rioters screaming and throwing anything they can and bodies laying here and there. "We must preserve our energy for fighting off the demons! This-" The crowd started throwing things at him and marching closer to him.

"Fine, a different tactic." He mumbled. "I'm locked out too can't you see!? Leave me alone!" He backed up slowly as everyone slowly turned their attention back to the gates. One thing was for sure, they needed to find safety. The general had told everyone who worked to help set up the shelter to meet here, an official presidential outpost in the heart of a wizarding city in upstate New York. Even though it hurt to see such beautiful buildings burn from the birth of chaos, the warmth of it felt quite nice. Here in upstate New York the temperature was cold, the sunlight hidden behind the few slithering clouds in the sky wasn't doing much to warm anyone up. It was quite different from his Grams house a lot further south, there it was actually a pretty nice day out if you didn't factor in the hoards of demons flying in to kill or enslave everyone. Neville dragged Luna closer to the burning market off to his left where they huddled for warmth.

"What are we going to do Neville?" Luna asked looking back at the rioters. Someone from the crowd walked over to them, Neville saw him approaching and rested his hand on his wand ready to defend them if need be. He didn't think his 'I got locked out too' speech was actually going to work and figured at least a couple of people were going to try to fight him.

"You were granted admittance?" The man asked. He was wearing a bright orange beanie, a fur lined black trench coat, blue jeans and black combat boots. He looked warm and casual yet ready for a fight at a moment's notice. Neville's instincts told him not to lie to this man.

"Yes..." Yet he was still a little reluctant to grant this random man information, the man must have sensed this because he then introduced himself.

"I am Charles, good to meet you." He said and held out his hand, Neville reluctantly grabbed it and found his hand stuck in the man's steely grasp. As the man smiled reassuringly Neville started to panic and try wrenching his hand away but it wouldn't budge.

"Please don't panic, simply recite your full name for me and we can continue." He said not letting go.

"Neville Longbottom!" Neville cried out, freaking out just a little. Green sparks flew up from between their hands and Charles let go.

"Sorry Neville, protocol and all." He shrugged and held out his hand to Luna. "And she is?" He raised an eyebrow at Neville.

"My girlfriend." He blurted out. "Luna!" He continued. "Her name is Luna." He sighed trying to calm himself down, Charles smiled.

"Nice to meet you too, Luna." He said still holding his hand out to her, Luna smiled and grabbed his hand eagerly.

"Luna Lovegood." She said and more green sparks flew into the air.

"Great, we should get going. Those are demons over there and they aren't looking for friends." Charles said nodding to what looked like a cloud on the horizon before turning away and very quickly walking down the street towards the residential area.

"Uhm." Neville coughed catching up to Charles. "Where are we going?" Charles turned and smiled without breaking pace.

"Into the bunker, they had to lock it down before the masses started breaking the enchantments that protect it. They only had about eighty percent of the admitted beings inside at the time so they sent some of the more capable sorcerers outside to keep an eye out for the remaining fortunate ones."

"Are there any Crumple horned snorcacks in this bunker? It is vital that some of them be saved!" Luna cut in. At this Charles froze and turned back to her with a bewildered look, he turned to Neville who was blushing and wearing a sheepish smile, then back to Luna and burst into laughter. With his sharp pointed black eyebrows, small pointed nose and thin tight lips it almost looked like he was about to yell at her but his soft hazel eyes gave away his amusement when they cracked with smile lines even before he laughed.

"What in Merlin's name is a Crumple horned snorcack?" He laughed, Luna looked offended.

"They're-" She was cut off by a roar from above. As Luna and Neville looked up to see the demons arriving Charles turned and continued his brisk walk towards the neighborhood at the end of the block. Neville and Luna eventually realized he was walking away and ran to catch up.

"Where are we going? The bunker entrance is back there!" Luna called to Charles jogging to keep up.

"Yes, but as I said we had to close the main entrance before the rioters broke the enchantments. We set up a side entrance through a basement of one of these suburban houses out here, It's a magical entrance and they announced that they're going to close it when the demons arrive so really we have very little time." With that he started to run as well making it even harder for Neville and Luna to keep up. As they sprinted to keep up with Charles, Neville glanced up to see thousands of demons flying through the air. The sky sprinkled with demons roaring, screeching and blowing flames.

"Are the demons showing up like this everywhere?" He asked out of breath as he ran.

"No!" Charles called over his shoulder. "In the average magical communities they're showing up maybe a few hundred strong and then they split up into groups of three or four to hunt down magical folk, they must know there's a bunker here!" He picked up his pace a little creating more distance between them.

"Slow down a little!" Luna panted. "Can't... keep... up!" Charles glanced back to see how far back they were.

"Just a little fur-"

"Look out!" Neville called but it was too late, a demon that resembled a pterodactyl landed in front of him. Charles turned and ran right into it's sword, all Neville and Luna saw was the tip of the sword come sliding out his back. Charles banished the demon and came flying off it's sword, he quickly cast a healing spell on himself before jumping up and throwing more spells at the demon. The demon deflected every spell as it got up, it was all wings, the body disproportionate, it had small arms and small legs, the head was long and thin with sharp barbed horns sticking out the top of it's skull. It had teeth like a shark, hundreds of razor sharp teeth in multiple rows inside it's jaws. It's wings were gigantic, spanning a total of about sixty feet across with sharp looking spikes along the tops. The color was like oil and water mixed, black at it's base but glistening rainbow like colors when it moved.

Neville shook off his shock and joined Charles in casting curse after curse but the demon kept swinging it's wings around and sending the spells flying. Windows and doors exploded in the houses around them as the spells hit. Charles cast a spell that hit and sank in slowly, throwing purple sparks as it did. The demon screeched and Neville heard his ear drums explode like fireworks, Charles fell to his knees in front of him and dropped his wand. As Neville watched the demon threw it's wings back and rocketed towards them, before he could even think of a spell it wrapped it's jaws around Charles' head and took it clean off. As his lifeless body fell to the ground the demon chewed his head with glee, Neville turned, grabbed Luna's hand and ran. They ran to the left through the side gate of the nearest house and into the backyard. As they ran Neville felt something running down his neck and with his free hand felt it and saw it was blood coming from his ears which made sense, he couldn't hear anything but a loud ringing in his ears.

They jumped the fence in the backyard into the adjacent backyard and ran straight through the sliding glass door into the house, they quickly ran down the hallway opening every door before they found the one for the basement under the stairs. Neville dragged Luna inside, slammed the door and cast a locking spell on it before rushing the rest of the way down the stairs, once they reached the bottom they found a pretty cool room, off to the left was a kitchen with a fridge, oven, stove and a sink with a lot of cabinets in between. To the right was a living room with a television, a comfortable looking couch, a coffee table and under the stairs behind them was a pool table. The floor was a dark hardwood, the walls regular cinder block and the decorating matched. The kitchen was dark hardwood with black and white marble countertops, the couches grey, coffee table dark hardwood and the pool table black. Neville cast a healing charm on himself and Luna before rushing into the kitchen, at first he didn't think the healing charm had worked properly because all he could hear was a loud banging but then he realized that the sound was coming from the door at the top of the stairs. He quickly ran back over and tackled Luna out of the way just as the door burst open and the demon came hurtling down the stairs. It hit Neville so hard he flew back and slammed into the wall, as it came charging towards him again Neville summoned the fridge to him with all his magical strength. The fridge came flying through the air and smashed the demon into the wall hard enough to crack the cinder blocks, thinking fast Neville rolled just before the fridge fell on him and jumped to his feet.

He turned to see the demon lying atop the busted fridge with black blood running from it's nose, quickly he stuck his wand down it's throat and sent every illegal curse he could think of into it. When smoke started billowing from the demons throat he stopped and turned to find Luna staring at him, mouth agape, eyes wide in sheer terror.

"Uhh... I'm sorry..." He said rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly, Luna ran to him and wrapped him in a hug.

"Oh Neville!" She cried. "You saved me!" After crying in each other's arms for a minute Neville relocked the door and cast as many protective, scent concealment and sound concealment charms as he knew, then Luna added a few as Neville pushed the demon off the mangled fridge and popped it open. He pulled out supplies to make sandwiches and closed it back up.

"We should check the news." He told Luna taking everything to the living room and plopping down on the couch.

_It appears the demons are taking over, Dylan_. The newscaster was saying, it was a muggle television but Neville knew the spell to activate the magical channels. The images flashing across the screen looked like hell on earth, demons everywhere, destroying, killing, kidnapping and in one short video that played, raping.

_Earth's forces were overrun and outnumbered so the MLFC called them back to guard the shelters, it wasn't a decision they made lightly but strategic nonetheless. The MLFC decided to pull back the remaining forces in an attempt to get all hands on deck in readying th__e new world and protecting the shelters, they knew many would die from this decision but they weighed that more would die if they waited until Earth's strongest forces were defeated. If you're seeing this and aren't in some form of shelter we strongly urge you to find shelter wherever possible, it is the MLFC's recommendation to retreat into the muggle world and cease all use of magic until further notice and to split into very small groups. We here at MLFN are praying for you, stay strong out there. _With that the newscast went into scenes of carnage from all around the world and Neville continued making them sandwiches.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

**Thank you all for your feedback and I apologise for such a long wait between chapters, I work in the medical industry and everything has gotten very chaotic and busy with the virus. (It seems the demons have paid the real earth a visit) I am thinking about making Akren T-shirts and hoodies and will sell them if anyone is interested (please leave a review telling me if you're interested.****) If enough people are interested then in the next chapter I will leave a note on where you can see and buy them. **


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